Someone can steal your identity by mimicking your name, Social Security number, credit card number(s), driver's license number, bank account number(s), or any other piece of your personal information for their use. In short, Identity Theft occurs when someone uses your personal information without your knowledge to commit fraud.

The methods identity thieves use are varied. They sometimes open a new credit card account using your name, date of birth, and Social Security number, then call your credit card issuer and, pretending to be you, change the mailing address on your credit card account. Next, the imposter runs up charges on your account. Because your bills are being sent to a different address you may not immediately realize that there is a problem. Another strategy identity thieves use is to establish cellular phone service in your name, or even open a bank account in your name and write bad checks on that account.



Identity Theft statistics are staggering and will continue to grow thanks to the challenging economy and the growth and dependence on technology. Below is some recent data regarding Identity Theft in the US.

An Identity is stolen every 3 seconds.

 

There were over 10 million victims of Identity Theft in 2008.

 

Identity Theft, surpassing drug crimes, is the #1 crime in the US.

 

71% of fraud happens within a week of stealing a victim's personal data.

 

As of March 31, over 1.5 Million records have been breached in 2009.

 

ID Theft grew 47% in 2008 over 2007 and is expected to increase more in 2009.

 

$48 Billion was lost due to Identity Theft in 2008.

 

Consumers spent over 6,000,000,000 hours recovering from ID Theft in 2008.

 

In 2008, 43% of Identity Theft was due to a stolen wallet, purse, credit card or other physical document.

 

Average cost to recover a stolen identity is $8,000.