Javelin Survey Finds Victims of ID Fraud on the Rise
February 20th, 2010 by Max AnhouryIdentity fraud, and the number of its victims, continues to rise each year.
According to a recent article, “Number of identity fraud victims jumps,” a Javelin Strategy & Research survey found that the total number of ID fraud victims in the U.S. rose to last years to 11.1 million—a 12% increase over the year before. The study also found that 2009 losses due to ID fraud totaled $54 billion (in comparison $48 billion in 2008).
But why, with so many anti-fraud management solutions and techniques available, does ID fraud continue to climb year-over-year? According to James Van Dyke, president and founder of Javelin, the continual evolution of technology is one of three main factors contributing to the increase of Identity fraud. Van Dyke sees online crime continuing to escalate, due to:
1. Rapidly evolving technology. Technology has become the livelihood of today’s cyber criminals who make it their business to keep up with the latest trends in technology so they can devise increasingly complex schemes to defeat anti-fraud defenses.
2. More people online. The fact that there are more people—both businesses and consumers—spending time making connections and conducting financial transactions over the Internet means there are more prospective victims out there for criminals to target.
3. More information online. The increase in personal and financial information available on the Web provides hackers with more useable information to steal online. A person’s online information is the lifeblood of everything hackers do.
This survey isn’t news to most of our customers. Fighting online fraud is a serious endeavor and is of strategic importance to any online business. That’s why, as online crime continues to rise, businesses that implement best-practice technology for fighting fraud not only save their company time and money, but gain a competitive advantage in their industry.
Tags: Online Fraud
