10 Key Data Points on Identity Fraud

• Identity fraud trends
• The number of adult victims of identity fraud within the past 12 months has declined marginally between 2003 and 2006, from 10.1 million people to 8.9 million people, in the United States.
• The average fraud amount per case has increased from $5,249 to $6,383, over 2 years. As a result, the total one-year cost of identity fraud in the United States has remained relatively flat between 2003 and 2006, increasing from $53.2 billion to $56.6 billion.
• The vast majority of identity fraud victims (68%) incur no out-of-pocket expenses. This points out that businesses are victims of fraud as well.
• Victims are spending more time to resolve identity fraud cases, which has increased from 33 hours in 2003 to 40 hours in 2006.

• Means of Access
• Most data compromise - 90 percent - takes place through traditional offline channels and not via the Internet, when the victim can identify the source of data compromise.*
• Lost or stolen wallets, checkbooks or credit cards continue to be the primary source of personal information theft when the victim can identify the source of data compromise. (30 percent).*
• Almost half (47 percent) of all identity theft is perpetrated by friends, neighbors, in-home employees, family members or relatives - someone known - when the victim can identify the perpetrator of data compromise.**
• Nearly 70 percent of consumers are shredding documents, so that trash as a source of data compromise is now less than 1 percent.
• Note: * 47% of victims could identify the source of the data compromise.
  ** 36% of victims could identify the person who misused their information.
• Demographic differences:
• The 65+ demographic age group has the smallest rate of identity fraud victims (2.3%).
• The 35-44 demographic age group has the highest average fraud amount ($9,435). (Note: victims' age was not found to be statistically related to Internet usage as compared to traditional types of fraud.)