Identity Theft

Identity theft is someone taking personal information like your name, Social Security number or account number and using it for unlawful purpose. Everyday people, business owners, well-known celebrities, and children are prey to it. In California, all forms of identity theft are crimes (Penal Code section 530.5 et. seq.).

Identity thieves do many things in a victim's name. They open new credit accounts, take out auto loans, enjoy medical services (and make insurance claims), and even commit crimes and generate criminal records. The breakdown of identity theft types for 2011:

• 66% involved existing credit or debit card accounts.
• 17% involved other existing accounts, such as bank accounts and utilities.
• 17% involved new accounts and non-account-related forms of the crime.

The third type, new account and non-account identity theft, can be hardest to resolve. Victims of new account fraud may spend hundreds of hours and thousands of dollars clearing up their records and their lives.

Identity Theft Impacts

Identity theft does not discriminate. There were 11.6 million U.S. adult victims in 2011. That represents 4.9% of U.S. adults, including over a million Californians. Identity theft is also expensive. The total cost of identity theft in 2011 was $18 billion. The average victim spent $354 and 12 hours to resolve the problem and clear up records.

Victims come in all ages, and the impact of the crime varies by age group. Victims over 65 tend to experience less severe forms. This group paid the least, $41 on average, and had to spend the least time resolving it, eight hours. The crime also varies by household income. Those with higher incomes are more likely to be victimized: 7.7% for households with incomes of $150,000 or more. This contrasts with only 3.3% among households with incomes below $15,000. On the other hand, the impact on victims is greater among lower-income households. Victims in the highest-income households had average costs of $82 and 7 hours. Those in the lowest-income group had average costs of $898 and 29 hours.

Note: The statistics cited are from the Javelin Strategy & Research "2012 Identity Fraud Report," released in February 2012.