The Facts About Identity Theft: Identity Theft Statistics

By Dawn Handschuh, Personal Finance Writer   

Identity theft often falls under the radar, undetected for long periods. For criminals who do their dirty work when no one's watching, sometimes in the privacy and comfort of their own homes, identity theft is a low-risk, high-reward activity.

The facts surrounding identity theft vary from one survey to another, but a cross-section of data from multiple sources offers a revealing view of the crime.

Prevalence

• There were 8.4 million identity theft victims in the United States in 2007.¹
• Identity theft has surpassed drug trafficking as the number one crime in the nation, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
• The states with the highest identity theft rate include New York, California, Nevada, Arizona, Washington and Texas. In Waco, Texas, law enforcement reported a 700% increase in identity theft cases between 2004 and 2005.²

Cost

• The total cost of identity theft to U.S. businesses and consumers was $56.6 billion in 2005.³
• The mean fraud amount per victim was $5,720 in 2007.¹

Victims

• Victims spent an average of 25 hours responding to identify theft in 2007.¹
• Most (70%) victims in 2004 said there was still negative information in their records.²
• Victims say the emotional impact of identity theft is comparable to that of violent crime.⁴
• Nearly 85% of victims find out about identity theft in a negative manner (for example, being denied credit or loan applications or finding unauthorized charges on credit card accounts).⁴

Methods

• Most thieves still steal personal information through traditional rather than electronic channels. In cases where the method was known, information was obtained offline 68.2% of the time, and just 11.6% of the time through the Internet.⁵
• Conventional methods (e.g., lost or stolen wallets, theft by family and friends, and mail theft) are still the most common ways thieves find information.⁵
• Crimes committed after ID theft occurs include the opening of a credit card (73%) and the takeover of a card account (27%).⁴

Arrests

• Law enforcement figures indicate that the average arrest rate for ID theft crimes is under 5% of all reported cases by victims.²

Footnotes

¹ Javelin 2007 Identity Fraud Survey Report, Javelin Strategy & Research, January 2007 (downloadable PDF)
² Facts and Statistics, Identity Theft Resource Center
³ Javelin 2006 Identity Fraud Report, Javelin Strategy & Research, January 2006 (downloadable PDF)
⁴ Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, http://privacyrights.org
⁵ Javelin/Better Business Bureau 2005, Identity Fraud survey, BBB Online, January 2005