Identity Theft Statistics

One of the greatest identity theft concerns involves how it has been a common crime in recent years. This is a disturbing trend in that it is not only more commonplace in society but with technological advances in society it may only become more common. Here are some important identity theft statistics to use.

According to the Federal Trade Commission more than forty percent of the complaints that the group has gotten have involved identity theft. This is the most common compliant that people have sent over the past few years to the FTC. About ten million people total have had their information stolen so that an identity thief can open up credit cards or bank accounts that are fraudulent.

A majority of the instances of identity theft involve openings of new credit cards. About 3.2 million people around the world have fallen victim to this, thus creating a significant concern.

Another of the identity theft concerns is that of the financial costs of theft. Victims of theft have lost more than $50 billion in both new and existing accounts. Since about 47.5 million people have been victimized by identity theft that will equal to about five hundred dollars per person. Not only are people impacted but businesses can also be seriously harmed by theft.

Time is wasted from the people who try to get their identities back as well. It takes about thirty to sixty hours on average for a victim to handle identity theft. A total of about 300 million hours have been spent in the United States alone to handle identity theft cases. However, in many of these cases the people who have been victimized often know who the thieves are, and this can include family members, friends or employees of a business.

In many cases people who look to get their identities back will end up spending a good amount of money to get those identities back. It costs about eight hundred dollars on average to get a person to clear one's name and to get the previous credit history back. In fact, the time that it takes to get the credit back can be a while. The FTC states that it takes about fourteen to sixteen months to get one's name cleared from identity theft.

The last of the statistics that illustrate these identity theft concerns involves the growth in identity theft. Identity Theft Statistics states that the number of theft complaints in 2004 was fifteen percent higher than that of the complaints in 2003.

These are all identity theft statistics to greatly consider. Identity theft is a serious crime, and with these numbers it makes protecting one's identity even more important.