Financial identity theft is on the news, in the newspaper, and a topic of conversation wherever you go. It seems everyone you talk to either knows someone who’s been a victim, or has been a victim themselves.

Findings on the impact and scope of financial identity theft:

• So far, 15 million Americans have been victims of financial ID theft. With a national population of 300 million, that means 1 in 20 has been hit.
• Personal financial losses average $1,244.
• The estimated loss to businesses and consumers in 2005 was $56.6 billion.
• All branches of the federal government report losses of personal data, only a small percentage of which was caused by hackers. By far the majority of losses is the result of theft of laptops, disks, drives or unauthorized use by employees.
• Corporate and governmental security breeches account for 217,551,182 compromised records.
• 88 percent of all identity theft is the result of synthetic identity theft, rather than the better known true name identity theft.
• It takes an average of 600 hours to resolve issues of identity theft, though a many victims report that even after that time negative financial information remains on their credit report.
• Victims of financial identity theft report a level of emotional impact similar to victims of rape, assault and repeated battering. Some say they felt dirty, defiled or ashamed.
• Family stress, divorce, difficulty in finding employment and obtaining credit are common byproducts of identity theft.
• Most financial identity theft is a crime of opportunity and is perpetrated by family members, neighbors or employees.

What can you do to prevent financial identity theft?

Given that your financial ID is almost entirely in the hands of government and corporate entities, there is little you can do to prevent identity theft. There are, however, steps you can take to minimize the risk and resultant damage should identity theft occur.

• Keep all documents with identifying information under lock and key. Carry no more identification or credit cards in your wallet than is absolutely necessary.
• Do not leave incoming or outgoing mail in your mailbox.
• Check your credit report at least every six months.
• Consider subscribing to an identity theft protection service such as LifeLock. To receive 30 days free and pay only $9 a month use the LifeLock promotion code RD17.

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Tags: avoid identity theft, ID theft, Identity Theft, LifeLock

This entry was posted on Friday, November 14th, 2008 at 3:35 pm and is filed under identity theft prevention. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.