Identity theft held the top spot on the FTC's Consumer Complaints list for nine consecutive years, accounting for nearly one-fifth of all complaints filed in 2010. The numbers behind that ranking are worth knowing on their own.
How many people it actually touches
- 8.1 million American adults experienced identity theft in 2010 — a 28% decline from 2009
- One in six Americans was victimized in 2008
- 3.5% of the total U.S. population fell victim to identity fraud in 2010
- Identity theft occurs somewhere in the United States roughly every 79 seconds
What it costs, in money and time
- Global business losses run an estimated $50 billion annually
- Individual victims averaged $631 in out-of-pocket expenses
- Resolving a case took victims an average of 33 hours
Who's behind it
14% of identity fraud crimes were carried out by someone the victim actually knew — not a stranger. Telephone schemes and text-message scams have also grown as fraud channels alongside the more familiar phishing and data-breach routes.
Children are targeted too
Roughly one child per classroom becomes an identity theft victim. When it happens, the fraudulent debt racked up in a child's name averaged $12,799 — and 12% of child victims were five years old or younger, meaning the fraud can sit undetected for years before anyone applies for credit in that child's name.
The scale here is exactly why identity verification has to be layered — no single check catches a stolen identity used carefully, and a child's clean credit file is a particularly attractive, particularly durable target.