Women Hit Hardest by ID Theft

Identity Theft Hits Women Hardest

Who is most affected by identity theft, who commits the crime and how can people protect themselves?  When it comes to the theft of personal information, women beware.  According to a study by Affinion Security Center, 17% percent of female identity theft victims have lost $1,000 or more due to the crime, versus only 10% of males.
In addition, more men (61%) avoided losing money than women (53%).
The good news is that most of the cases of identity theft were solved, although some were solved faster than others.
Forty-two percent of cases were closed in less than one week, 20% took between one week and one month and 13% took two months to six months.

Even so, if you are a victim of identity theft, chances are you will never know who did it.
A survey from the Identity Theft Assistance Center (ITAC) found that 72% of victims had no idea know who stole their personal information.
Of those that did, most cases (26.5%) were committed by friends, relatives or in-home employees who had access to personal information. Next came computer-related fraud (21.6%), lost or stolen wallets, checkbooks and credit card accounts (15.1%) and mail fraud (11.6%)


How can consumers protect themselves?

Measures taken by respondents to the Affinion survey to keep their identities secure included:

• Shredding documents before disposal
• Monitoring credit card accounts
• Keeping personal information locked in a safe

Anne Wallace, ITAC president, suggests keeping data in the home and workplace in secure locations, monitoring accounts for unusual activity, updating anti-virus software and upgrading browser and operating systems.
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