Statistics and Quotes Making the News


The Numbers

1. 9.9 million people lost their identity to theft in 2003 (Federal Trade Commission).
2. Since 1995, Identity Theft has increased 250 to 300% each year.
3. On average, out-of-pocket costs: approx. $1178.
4. It takes approximately 175 hours of time to restore your identity (that’s one full month of work!).
5. The emotional price cannot be tallied.
6. Approximately one in every 8 consumers is a victim of Identity Theft.
7. There is a 1 in 700 chance that an ID thief will be apprehended.
8. On average, discovery takes 14 months – plenty of time for the damage to be done.

Since 1999, the Federal Trade Commission says that it will have registered 210 million complaints to its identity theft clearinghouse by year-end 2003. That equals 75% of the American population. (Sep 12, 2003)

Financial loss from identity theft is expected to reach $73.8 billion in the United States by the end of this year (2003) -- $221.2 billion worldwide, reports Aberdeen analysts.

Identity theft has skyrocketed in the past year, affecting nearly 10 million Americans and costing $48 billion in damages, according to a new report from the Federal Trade Commission.

The FTC report shows that since 1998, 27.3 million Americans have been victims of identity theft. That number includes 9.9 million people in the last year alone.


Quotes

“Given the percentage of growth, the reality is that most of us will become a victim of identity theft sometime in our lives, if not multiple times.
-- Linda Goldman-Foley, Executive Director of the Identity Theft Resource Center  www.idtheftcenter.org

"The big cost is the emotional trauma," Mierzwinski says.
-- Ed Mierzwinski, consumer program director of the U.S. Public Interest Research Group

"The most common complaint of identity theft victims is they have to take time off work," Givens says. "I can't tell you how many people have called and said 'I had to take a week off work.'  I've heard of people who are sorting things out for months or even years," she says. "You might spend anywhere from six months to two years recovering from identity theft." "
-- Beth Givens, director of the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse

Source:
Parade Magazine: 7-5-03
“When Someone Steals Your Identity”
by Robt Moritz.

USA Today:

“A recent survey found that more Americans are worried about identity theft than about losing their jobs.”

http://www.usatoday.com/money/perfi/columnist/block/2003-05-05-ym_x.htm

N.C. Attorney General Roy Cooper
"Businesses are losing billions of dollars to this crime," says N.C. Attorney General Roy Cooper, calling identity theft the fastest-growing crime in the nation. "Banks are certainly on the leading edge of those losses."
Most of the time, the bank loses the money, and the customer loses their good name," says Cooper

http://www.bizjournals.com/charlotte/stories/2003/06/16/focus2.html?jst=s_rs_hl

A survey by the California Public Interest Research Group found that all but one of the victims they spoke to had contacted the police about their cases, and 76% of those felt the police were unhelpful. Law enforcement agents issued a police report less than three-fourths of the time, and assigned a detective to victims' cases less than half of the time.

Bank of America Corp. declines to discuss its losses related to identity theft. Nearly 40% of the banks participating in the American Banking Association's 2002 survey on fraud ranked identity theft as the No. 1 threat to the banking industry.