Sarah Schmidt, of the Canwest News Service, in an article published by the Calgary Herald reports that in a study by McMaster eBusiness Research Centre found that a majority of the 1.7 million cases of identity fraud in the past year involved unauthorized purchases made with credit cards.
Identity theft plagues Canadians as online shopping growsSarah Schmidt, Canwest News Service
Published: Monday, November 17, 2008
Victims of identity fraud spent more than $150 million of their own money and spent 20 million hours to resolve the fraud in the past year as part of a ballooning problem that struck almost 1.7 million Canadians, a survey has found.
Most victims (57 per cent) do not know how they wound up on a fraudster's hit list and it turns out old-fashioned shopping is riskier than online commerce; 25 per cent of cases were associated with business transactions conducted in person compared to 15 per cent linked to online transactions. Debit card skimming operations made up another 13 per cent of the cases.
The study says historically, 25 per cent of cases of identity fraud were committed by someone known to the victim, but the survey found this represented only seven per cent of all cases. continue reading
Most victims (57 per cent) do not know how they wound up on a fraudster's hit list and it turns out old-fashioned shopping is riskier than online commerce; 25 per cent of cases were associated with business transactions conducted in person compared to 15 per cent linked to online transactions. Debit card skimming operations made up another 13 per cent of the cases.
The study says historically, 25 per cent of cases of identity fraud were committed by someone known to the victim, but the survey found this represented only seven per cent of all cases. continue reading
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