#20. Identity Theft: Up In A Down Economy
A lot of people are hurting in what has become a global recession. Identity thieves could not care less. As far as they are concerned business is booming Turn on your TV and no doubt you will have seen one or more talk show hosts chatting it up with an economist or historian. The reason you may be seeing a lot more of these folks is of course due to the tough economy. Both groups agree that we are not at the Great Depression levels of the 1930's but we are no doubt experiencing problems which in many ways are comparable to that time period.
Wall Street is tanking, foreclosures have exploded and many businesses are out of business or at least not far off from shutting their doors permanently. A huge chunk of the population is hurting and what makes the pain even more severe is that identity theft is on the rise.
This is an unfortunate reversal of fortune. While identity theft has been ranked as the number one consumer complaint for nearly a decade, the reports of identity theft had actually been declining. This can be attributed to people better educating themselves and taking the necessary safeguards to decrease their risk. Some specific numbers while not a cause to hold Mardi Gras celebrations were very encouraging.
For instance according to Javelin Strategy & Research, the amount of money loss to identity theft victims declined by about twelve percent. This goes hand in hand with another statistic; namely the amount of money spent to fix the problems caused by the initial theft went down by thirty one percent. In about half the cases, identity theft victims did not have to shell out any money at all.
This is all good news but it looks like the dark clouds are moving back in our direction and we probably have the financial crisis to thank for it. James Van Dyke is president of Javelin Strategy & Research. When asked by CNN about the sudden turn around he stated, "The only thing we can logically attribute that to is the economy. If people need to make money, and decide to do so illicitly, identity fraud is the logical opportunity."
Why is identity theft the logical opportunity? For the simple reason it utilizes an ever growing variety of methods which are so easy to get away with. And it also does not hurt that there are no one hundred percent safeguards available.
We have been warned by many experts and public officials that times could get decidedly tougher and stay that way for the near future. That means belt tightening and making some hard choices in our personal lives. It also means that the last thing any of us can afford right now is to leave the door open for friends, acquaintances, relatives or total strangers to take advantage of a logical opportunity.