Identity Theft Info New York Private Investigator

Shocking No. 1 Source of Identity Theft About half of all identity
theft is
committed by close friends and relatives, who lift a wallet or
pocketbook and
not only steal the bills and credit cards inside, but also the identity
that
goes with it. That's the shocking conclusion of a new survey of 4,000
consumers,
about 500 of whom were identity theft victims, that was conducted by
Javelin
Research and the Better Business Bureau for CheckFree Services Corp.,
Visa
USA, and Wells Fargo Bank, report MarketWatch and The Associated Press.


The most frequently cited sources of identity theft:
Lost or stolen wallet: 29 percent
Fraud that occurs during an in-store or telephone transaction: 12.9
percent
Corrupt employees: 9 percent
Stolen mail: 8 percent
Spyware on the computer: 5 percent
Sifting through garbage: 2.6 percent
Computer viruses: 2.2 percent
"Phishing" through fraudulent e-mail: 1.7 percent


If a relative or friend rips off your wallet, you're also likely to pay
more
in dollar terms than if a stranger steals your identity. MarketWatch
reports
that families and friends made off with $15,607 on average, compared
with the
$9,243 on average stolen through mail theft, and $2,320 ripped off in
online
scams. But here's another cold fact: In fully 75 percent of the cases
of
identity theft, the victim has no clue who committed the crime.


The most difficult form of identity theft to detect is new account
fraud.
This occurs when a new credit card account is set up using the victim's
personal
information. This also tends to result in the highest dollar hit. New
account
fraud leads to a $12,646 hit per victim on average, compared with
$9,912 for
existing non-credit-card accounts and $5,803 for existing credit-card
accounts,
reports MarketWatch.



Keep watching this blog for more info.