Identity Theft - Don't Blame The Web
By Hamish Hayward

Identity theft – also known as ID theft, identity fraud and IDfraud – describes a type of fraud where a criminal adoptssomeone else’s identity in order to profit illegally. It is oneof the fastest growing forms of fraud in many developedcountries.

In the UK identity theft is increasing at the rate of 500% eachyear and, according to Which Magazine, 25% of the populationhave either suffered from identity theft or know someone who has.

In the USA, a report issued by the Better Business Bureaurevealed that, in 2004, over 9 million Americans became victimsof identity theft with the total sum defrauded being $52.6billion.

With figures like this, it’s no surprise that there is a certainamount of concern regarding computer and internet security.After all, the internet is basically a mechanism for exchanginginformation and the possibility that some of the informationexchanged may be more than intended is never far from manyinternet user’s minds.

According to the Better Business Bureau’s research the mainmethods by which criminals gain access to information used foridentity theft fraud are as below:

• Lost or stolen wallet, chequebook or credit card. 28.8%
• Accessed as part of a transaction. 12.9%*
• Accessed by friend, acquaintance or relative. 11.4%
• Don't know, refused, no answer. 11.1%
• Information accessed by corrupt employee. 8.7%
• Stolen paper mail or fraudulent change of address. 8.0%
• Obtained some other way. 7.4%
• Computer spyware. 5.2%
• Information stolen from garbage. 2.6%
• Computer viruses and/or hackers. 2.2%
• Emails sent by criminals posing as legitimate business. 1.7%
• 12.9% due to transactions - 10.4% offline transactions, 2.5%online transactions.

In total, when the instances where information was accessedduring transactions are subdivided into online and offlinetransactions, only 11.6% of the information used to carry outidentity theft fraud was obtained from computers.

Of this more than half was obtained by the use of spyware,viruses or hacking – the risk of which can be greatly reduced byinstalling the appropriate protection software and ensuring thatthis is kept up to date.

Not only did the survey reveal that the internet was not a majorsource of illegally obtained personal information, but it wasalso found that those fraud victims who checked their financialrecords using the internet, ATM machines or other electronicmethods suffered financial losses which were, on average, 8times lower than those of victims who used traditional paperstatements to monitor their accounts. This very significantreduction was attributed to the rapid discovery of the fraud dueto “real time” monitoring.

Of course, that’s not to say that you shouldn’t exercise cautionwhen using the internet or take care to protect the personalinformation which you may have stored on your PC. However, aslong as you install suitable virus, firewall and spywareprotection, and keep this continually updated the internet canshould be more of a help than a hindrance when it comes toavoiding identity fraud.

Don't become a victim. Find out the facts about identity theft.