Between January and December 2005 (latest available record), Consumer Sentinel, the complaint database developed and maintained by the FTC, received over 685,000 consumer fraud and identity theft complaints. Consumers reported losses from fraud of more than $680 million.
The representation shown above is the data based on the total number of Sentinel complaints (686,683) received between January 1 and December 31, 2005. Things haven’t changed a lot today. According to ‘The Identity Theft Resource Center (ITRC)’, the data breach count in the year 2008 is about 69% greater than that of 2007.
This ill fact regarding identity theft is that most of the victims didn’t contact any Law enforcement regarding the dispute. This is based on the survey done by the federal trade commission. This ignorance by the victims has made identity theft, the fastest growing crime in the US. It was also noted that people aged between 18-29 has complained about the Identity theft than others. This may be because people aged 18-49 involved in lot of trade transactions makes them more prone to Identity theft.
IDENTITY THEFT AT PRESENT (2008)
According to The Identity Theft Resource Center (ITRC), the above said crime has reached its peak through the year 2007- 2008. Between January 1st 2008 and June 27th 2008, the total number of data breaches (Identity theft) recorded by the ITRC is 342, more than 69% greater than the same time period in 2007. The actual number victims will certainly be more than what is mentioned here because most of the cases are not reported by the victims. It can be noted that the worst hit field is general business. And to say, scrap business is more likely prone to identity theft.
INCREASE OF IDENTITY THEFT IN BUSINESS FIELD:
General business only has found increase in Identity thefts. This increase in identity theft in general business is reflected in the scrap business too. This is caused due to the lack of awareness of people regarding the usage of internet and other modern payment methods. If the victims of identity theft still remain ignorant, there is no way to stop the sky rocketing identity theft.