ID Theft Statistics
Unfortunately, identity theft is a crime with epic proportions and the statistics can be overwhelming and somewhat confusing. We have summarized the basic identity theft statistics below to give you a better understanding and accurate picture of this heinous crime.
Despite your best efforts to manage the flow of your personal information and keep it secure, skilled identity thieves may use a variety of methods to gain access to your information. Here is the summary of statistics related to identity theft:
- 1 in 10 Americans are victims of identity theft in their lifetime
- Over 10 million identity theft victims in the US annually
- An identity is stolen every 4 seconds in the US
- 4% of the total US population has become victimized by Identity theft
- The average cost to restore a stolen identity is $8,000
- It takes 8-12 months, on average, for a victim of identity theft to notice the crime
- Victims spend an average of 40 hours recovering from Identity theft
- 4 million fraud calls occur annually to the 3 national credit bureaus
- Identity theft is the #1 consumer complaint for 5 straight years with the FTC
- Between Feb 2005 - March 2006 over 55 million Americans were put at risk by security breaches, leaving them vulnerable to identity theft
- 50% of new accounts opened by identity thieves are credit card accounts and the remain 50% are cell phone accounts, utility accounts, bank accounts and property rentals
- Identity theft victims who detected the crime by monitoring their accounts had average loses of $551 compared to $4,543 for those without monitoring services
Source: Javelin Group 2006; Privacy Rights Clearinghouse