Identity Theft Solutions

Identity theft – also known as ID theft, identity fraud and ID fraud – describes a type of fraud where a criminal adopts someone else’s identity in order to profit illegally. It is one of the fastest growing forms of fraud in many developed countries.

In the United Kingdom identity theft is currently growing at a rate of 500% each year and, according to Which Magazine, a quarter of the population have either suffered from identity theft or know someone else who has.

In the USA, a report issued by the Better Business Bureau revealed that, in 2004, over 9 million Americans became victims of one of the many different types of identity theft with the total sum defrauded being $52.6 billion.

With figures like this, it’s unsurprising that there is a great deal of concern surrounding computer and internet security. After all, the internet is basically a mechanism for exchanging information and the possibility that some of the information exchanged may be more than intended is never far from many internet user’s minds.

It’s easy to imagine criminal masterminds worldwide using the internet to hack into computers in order to gain access to information with which to advance their devilishly cunning schemes. However, as detailed in the report, the reality is a little more low tech and the internet, far from increasing your exposure to identity theft can, if used properly, significantly cut your losses if you do become a victim this form of fraud.

According to the Better Business Bureau’s research the main methods by which criminals gain access to information used for identity theft fraud are as below:

1. Lost or stolen wallet, chequebook or credit card. 28.8%
2. Accessed as part of a transaction. 12.9%*
3. Accessed by friend, acquaintance or relative. 11.4%
4. Don’t know, refused, no answer. 11.1%
5. Information accessed by corrupt employee. 8.7%
6. Stolen paper mail or fraudulent change of address. 8.0%
7. Obtained some other way. 7.4%
8. Computer spyware. 5.2%
9. Information stolen from garbage. 2.6%
10. Computer viruses and/or hackers. 2.2%
11. Emails sent by criminals posing as legitimate business. 1.7%

* 12.9% resulting from transactions – 10.4% offline transactions, 2.5% online transactions.

In total, when the instances where information was accessed during transactions are subdivided into online and offline transactions, only 11.6% of the information used to carry out identity theft fraud was obtained from computers.

Of this more than fifty percent was obtained by the use of viruses, spyware or hacking – the risk of which can be significantly lowered by the installation of the appropriate protection software and by ensuring that this is kept up to date.

Not only did the survey reveal that the internet was not a major source of illegally obtained personal information, but it was also found that those fraud victims who checked their financial records using the internet, ATM machines or other electronic methods suffered financial losses which were, on average, 8 times lower than those of victims who used traditional paper statements to monitor their accounts. This significant reduction was attributed to the fact that the fraud was discovered more quickly thanks to “real time” monitoring.

Of course, that’s certainly not to imply that you shouldn’t exercise caution when using the internet or take care to protect the sensitive information which you have stored in your PC’s memory. However, as long as you install suitable virus, spyware and firewall protection, and ensure that this is kept updated, then the internet can be more help than a hindrance when it comes to avoiding identity fraud.

Leave a Reply