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By Michael Eggebrecht
Last year, 11.1 million U.S. adults were the victim of identity fraud -- 4.8 percent of the population. That’s good for a 12 percent increase from 9.9 million the prior year, according to Javelin Strategy & Research, which released its annual identity fraud survey Feb. 9.
That number also represents the largest annual increase in victims since research firm Javelin began conducting the survey in 2003. Along with that increase, the total annual fraud amount in 2009 increased 12.5 percent, from $48 billion to $54 billion.
Still, the report, which was based on a November survey of 5,000 people, found that businesses and consumers alike are resolving fraud more quickly, thanks in part to technology advances. The average fraud resolution time fell from 30 hours in 2008 to 21 hours last year.
“The good news is consumers are getting more aggressive in monitoring, detecting and preventing fraud with the help of technology and partnerships with financial institutions, government agencies and resolution services,” said Javelin president and founder James Van Dyke in a statement.
But at the same time, fraudsters are also increasingly leaning on technology by using personal information stolen in data breaches to open new accounts or make changes to existing ones, according to Javelin. Fraudsters are also targeting online accounts -- fraudulent e-commerce and e-mail payment accounts each rose 12 percent last year.
Meanwhile, financial firms and businesses are successfully minimizing the use of Social Security numbers in account information, says the Javelin report, and are doing a better job of monitoring for fraudulent activities. The percentage of data breaches that involved compromised Social Security numbers fell from 38 percent in 2008 to 32 percent last year. Full customer names were compromised in 63 percent of breaches, and 37 percent included physical addresses.
Small business owners were one-and-a-half times more likely to suffer identify fraud than the typical U.S. consumer, according to the report, which pointed to small offices using personal accounts when making business transactions.
The average amount per fraud victim fell from $4,858 in 2009 to $4,841 last year, found Javelin, but the average cost per consumer fell from $496 to $373 -- a much larger dip, in terms of percentage.
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