Focus on the Victim

by Doug Pollack

The Identity Theft Resource Center (ITRC) today released its annual survey  looking at the impact of identity theft crimes on the victim. This is the  fifth  of these annual studies  titled “Identity Theft: The Aftermath 2007″ .

The authors encourage readers to note that:

“It is critical that we remember these numbers are people. These are people with lives that have interrupted, altered, torn apart and/or impacted for years to come. They are people with feelings and emotions whose outlook on life and interactions with others may change due to the invasive nature of this crime.”

Some of the key findings of this study include:

- 62% of the people responding said that the thieves had committed financial crimes resulting in warrants issued to the victim, two-and-a-half times more than the prior year

- While a third of identity theft cases are perpetrated by persons known to the victim, in 2007 there was increase in ID theft due to scams

- Victims spend and average of 116 hours repairing damage done by an ID thief to an existing account, and 158 hours when dealing with a new account that was created with their identity

The ITRC is a non-profit organization that is “dedicated exclusively to the understanding and prevention of identity theft”.