Is Identity Fraud Reaching Epedemic Proportions?

Identity Fraud is unlike any other crime that mankind has ever known. Online thieves can swipe your personal information from half a continent away while they sleep, work or whatever. Victims are totally oblivious to the threat! Like it or worse yet, believe it or not, your personal information is there for the taking.

Digest the meaning of that fact for a minute then put it in perspective. Anyone can, with minimal effort, dig up mountains of personal information about you with just a few mouse clicks.

Studies have shown that most U.S. citizens are documented in at least 24 databases by the age of 18 years old! These databases range from school, doctor, hospital and employment records. Every one of these contain highly personal information and for the most part, offer very little protection. Furthermore, id theft prevention was practically non-existent in the medical profession up until the beginning of this decade. Medical fraud occurred whenever and wherever the thieves wanted it to occur.

Here are Ten Juicy Bits of identification theft information anyone can find out about you by simply accessing a database. Sometimes this access is totally free, and can even be done online!

• Your current and previous address
  
  
• Your legal history (any criminal convictions)
  
  
• Are you a licensed professional
  
  
• have you filed or been a defendant in any lawsuits
  
  
• Your driving record, (speeding tickets, DUI convictions or any other black marks in the MVA database
  
  
• What vehicles do you currently own
  
  
• Have you ever filed bankruptcy or had liens against your property
  
  
• Do you have property pledged as collateral for bank loans. What property
  
  
• How much real estate do you own. How much did you pay for it
  
  
• Is there an outstanding warrant for your arrest. What is the warrant for.

What does Identity Fraud have to do with being in databases?

In one word: EVERYTHING! Identification fraud is really Information theft. If there was no information to steal, there would be no crime to commit. Herein lies our problem. We simply are not in control of who places us in their database or the security measures they employ to protect that information!

The most amazing fact about this scenario is that, we as a general population refuse to acknowledge id-theft as a significant enough crime that could personally impact us! We live our day-to-day lives as if it just couldn't happen to us. Our neighbors, sure, but never us!

See for yourself in your neighborhood. Count the number of home security stickers, motion sensors, infrared rays, guard dog signs on any given block. The impression this gives to an outsider is, "We sure are interested in taking care of our property, and spend a lot of money doing so."

Drive by those same homes the night before trash pickup and observe how many of these same homeowners still put their trash out at night! A sure sign that a homeowner doesn't have a clue as to the first thing to do to fight identity theft.

Even worse, later on that night, while id thieves are "dumpster diving" through that same trash, digging up gold nuggets of information on them, the oblivious homeowner is talking merrily on wireless phones and tapping away on keyboards, activities that can propagate much more havoc than some burglar stealing their silverware.

Id theft and fraud investigations have show that the crime is not usually committed by unskilled drug addicts and petty criminals looking to score a little quick cash. Since taking root in the 1990's, id-theft has blossomed and now is linked to international drug trafficking and terrorism.

3 alarming statistics from a commercially sponsored Gallup poll released in August, 2005.

1. Roughly 2/3 of consumers who have not experienced identification fraud say it is UNLIKELY to happen to them
   
   
2. Only 6% have purchased some form of theft protection
   
   
3. Only 4% have checked their credit report to see if they are victims of credit theft!

Incredible to say the least, but quite alarming!

So, before you run off saying ID Theft and Fraud only happens to "the other guy" consider this, FTC Chairwoman Deborah Platt Majoras said that:

"Over a one-year period, nearly 10 million people or 4.6 % of the adult population- had discovered that they were victims of some form of credit fraud."

Do you make a good target? Here's how you find out. Take our short Identity Fraud Quiz.

Our QUIZ.