14 DAY TRIAL // Identity theft happens all over the world, but it seems that the Americans are the most vulnerable to this kind of web attack. According to a survey conducted by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), no less then 8.3 million Americans have been victims of this kind of attacks in 2005. This number represents an impressive 3.7 percent of all American adults, according to FTC. From the total number of victims, 1.8 millions US residents discovered that their personal information was used to conduct other attacks or to open new accounts. In addition, 3.2 million people, which equals 1.4 percent of the adults, "experienced misuse of their existing credit card accounts" as the FTC reports.
"Whether you're from Malibu or Manhattan, Tacoma or Tallahassee, no one is immune to identity theft," said Lydia B. Parnes, Director of the FTC's Bureau of Consumer Protection. "The important thing is that people learn how to deter identity thieves, detect suspicious activity on their financial records, and defend against the crime, should it happen."
The study was based on telephone interviews, taken between March 27 and June 11, 2006, and included 4,917 respondents. The interesting fact of the research is that the hackers didn't attempt to get important amounts of money, because approximately half of the cases involve up to $500. Only 10 percent of the cases reported losses of $6,000.
"Consumers have great tools at their disposal in their fight against identity thieves. For example, the law gives every consumer the right to get their credit report for free once every 12 months from each of the three national credit reporting companies. Monitoring your credit report periodically is one valuable way to check for activity that you didn't authorize. Another tool is FTC's identity theft page, a web site chock full of practical information for consumers, businesses entrusted with consumer data, and law enforcers who prosecute the crime."