Fraud continues to rise in 2009, with Javelin’s finding show there are more victims than in any period since the survey began in 2003.
The Javelin 2010 Identity Fraud Survey Report provides a detailed, comprehensive analysis in order to help consumers and businesses better understand the effectiveness of methods used for its prevention, detection and resolution.
A nationally representative sample of 5,000 U.S. adults, including 703 fraud victims, was surveyed via a 50 question phone interview to gain insight into this crime and the effects on its victims.
The total annual fraud amount in 2009 was $54 billion, a 12.5% increase over 2008, when it was $48 billion. In 2009, 11.1 million U.S. adults became victims of identity fraud, a 12% increase over 2008, and a 37% rise since 2007.
New account fraud is the main driver of the overall increase in total dollar fraud.
There are significant changes from the 2008 findings, with several states reporting a higher incidence of fraud in 2009. There appears to be no geographic pattern in increases and decreases. California was alone in showing a significantly greater than average incidence of fraud.
Existing non-card fraud and new accounts fraud can persist for up to one year or more without detection, while existing card fraud is generally over relatively quickly.
Bank accounts once again were the most misused account type in existing non-card fraud in 2009. However, misuse of Internet-based accounts and email pay accounts increased. Victims were four times as likely to identify abuse to their Internet accounts (e.g. eBay, Amazon) than they did in 2008 (21% vs. 50%). The same was true for alternative email payment accounts such as PayPal (14% vs. 3% the previous year).
One out of every 10 identity theft victims still suffered from account takeover (11%) in 2009.
The loss of SSNs are particularly devastating to ID fraud victims because they can be used to open fraudulent new accounts, which are very difficult to detect without access to a credit report or a credit monitoring service.
Normally, the sooner a breach is stopped, the lower the costs.
Younger adults suffer greater exposure and fraud victimization through social networking.
How they obtain information to preform fraud.
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