When it comes to the theft of personal information, women beware.
According to a study by Affinion Security Center, 17% percent of female identity theft victims have lost $1,000 or more due to the crime, versus only 10% of males.
In addition, more men (61%) avoided losing money than women (53%).
The good news is that most of the cases of identity theft were solved, although some were solved faster than others.
Forty-two percent of cases were closed in less than one week, 20% took between one week and one month and 13% took two months to six months.
Even so, if you are a victim of identity theft, chances are you will never know who did it.
A survey from the Identity Theft Assistance Center (ITAC) found that 72% of victims had no idea know who stole their personal information.
Of those that did, most cases (26.5%) were committed by friends, relatives or in-home employees who had access to personal information. Next came computer-related fraud (21.6%), lost or stolen wallets, checkbooks and credit card accounts (15.1%) and mail fraud (11.6%).
How can consumers protect themselves?
Measures taken by respondents to the Affinion survey to keep their identities secure included:
- Shredding documents before disposal
- Monitoring credit card accounts
- Keeping personal information locked in a safe
Anne Wallace, ITAC president, suggests keeping data in the home and workplace in secure locations, monitoring accounts for unusual activity, updating anti-virus software and upgrading browser and operating systems.
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