Identity Theft

Recent reports by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) illustrate that almost 10 million Americans are affected each year by identity theft; that’s approximately 1 in every 23 consumers is affected by identity theft.
Annual complaint filings to the FTC have increased from 215,093 complaints in 2003 to 246,570 identity theft complaints in 2004.
There has been a 132.6% increase of known phishing sites – that is, 198 in January 2004 to 2,625 known sites in February 2005.
Similarly, the FTC reports, “about 90% of business record thefts involve payroll or employment records, while only about 10% are generated from customer lists.” These business record thefts also include job applications, personnel records, health insurance and benefits records, and payroll related tax documents that provide personal information that identity thieves use to steal employees’ identities.
While most identity theft is use of consumer’s personal information to make purchases, almost 1.5 millions victims indicated that their personal information was misused in non-financial ways to obtain government documents or tax forms.