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Identity theft – also known as ID theft, identity fraud and ID fraud – refers to a type of fraud where a criminal steals someone else’s identity in order to profit illegally. It is one of the most rapidly growing forms of fraud in many developed countries.

In the UK identity theft is increasing at the rate of 500% every year and, according to Which Magazine, 25% of the populace have either suffered from identity theft or know someone who has.

In the USA, a briefing issued by the Better Business Bureau reported that, in 2004, over 9 million Americans became victims of identity theft with the total sum stolen being $52.6 billion.

With statistics like this, it’s no wonder that there is a certain level of concern about computer and internet security. After all, the internet is basically a mechanism for transferring information and the possibility that some of the information exchanged may be more than desired is never far from many web user’s minds.

It’s easy to imagine criminal geniuses around the globe using the web to break into PCs in order to gain access to data with which to advance their fiendishly clever schemes. However, as shown in the report, the facts of the matter are a little more simple and the internet, far from making you more prone to identity theft, can help to significantly reduce your losses if you do fall victim this form of illegal activity.

According to the Better Business Bureau’s research the most common methods by which criminals gain access to information used for identity theft fraud are as noted below:

• Accessed as part of a transaction. 12.9%*
• Computer spyware. 5.2%
• Emails sent by criminals posing as legitimate business. 1.7%
• Stolen paper mail or fraudulent change of address. 8.0%
• Don\’t know, refused, no answer. 11.1%
• Lost or stolen wallet, chequebook or credit card. 28.8%
• Obtained some other way. 7.4%
• Information accessed by corrupt employee. 8.7%
• Accessed by friend, acquaintance or relative. 11.4%
• Information stolen from garbage. 2.6%
• Computer viruses and/or hackers. 2.2%

* 12.9% due to transactions – 10.4% offline transactions, 2.5% online transactions.

In total, when the instances where information was accessed during transactions are segmented into online and offline transactions, only 11.6% of the information used to carry out identity theft fraud was obtained from computers.

Of this more than 50% was obtained by the use ofthe appropriate protection software and ensuring that this is kept up to date.

Not only did the survey reveal that the web was not a major source of fraudulently obtained personal revealed that those fraud victims who reviewed their financial records online, ATM machines or other real time methods suffered financial losses which were, on average, eight times lower when compared to those of victims who used conventional paper statements to review their accounts. This very significant reduction was attributed to the quick discovery of the fraud due to “real time” monitoring.

Of course, that’s not to say that you shouldn’t exercise caution when using the web or take care to protect the personal information which you might have stored on your computer. However, as long as you install suitable virus, firewall and spyware programs, and keep this constantly updated, the will be more of a help than a hindrance when it comes to avoiding identity scams.

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