In 2008, the FTC reported that it had received approximately 1,200,000 complaints related to fraud, identity theft and other consumer complaints, an approximately 50 percent increase over the previous year. Those consumers reported fraud related losses of more than $1.8 billion. While the report showed that identity theft is widespread, the states reporting the most complaints -- Arizona, California, and Florida, coincide with the states reporting the highest rates of foreclosure, demonstrating that the economic downturn has coincided with an upturn in fraud.
"This FTC report confirms what we have been seeing in the online chat rooms where identity thieves buy and sell stolen personal information. Since we are constantly monitoring these rooms on behalf of our customers, we've been able to track a significant increase in activity over the last six months," said Dan Clements, vice president of Affinion Security Center. "In fact, we think that the number of complaints that the FTC receives are just the tip of the iceberg, and there are actually many more cases of identity theft that go unreported. Americans, more than any other nation, are vulnerable to identity theft," he added.
The FTC report also showed that credit card fraud was the most common form of identity theft. When credit card information is stolen, the thieves often turn to online chat rooms where they buy and sell this information and also conduct tests to ensure the validity of the card. Affinion Security Center's CardCops team monitors these forums on behalf of customers, alerting them if their information is ever found in a chat room. In addition, the CardCops team has been able to track down the source of hundreds of data breaches through its research, providing a consumer service by alerting businesses that their information may have been leaked and their customer data compromised.
2008 also demonstrated a more than 50 percent increase in the percentage of identity theft complaints related to fraudulent tax returns filed.
"The difficult economic environment is coinciding with a significant increase in cases of identity theft," said Tom Rusin, president of Affinion Security Center. "We believe that solutions such as IdentitySecure, which protect against many types of identity threats, can help bring consumers some peace of mind that they are protected."
Each feature of the IdentitySecure solution is designed to address the modern threats facing consumers, threats that can't be adequately monitored by an average, or even technology-savvy, individual. The IdentitySecure service includes features such as monitoring of social security numbers and public records to detect criminal activity, frequent data sweeps of the internet for personal information, credit monitoring, and monitoring of underground chat rooms that buy and sell personal information. While breaches are often unavoidable, IdentitySecure provides proactive searches, early detection and recovery assistance.
