Survey Finds More Americans Unable to Recover from ID Theft in Tough Economy

[Robbien]

Source: Business Wire

COLUMBUS, Ohio--(BUSINESS WIRE)--In another sign of the tough economy, a new Nationwide Insurance survey found that nearly half of respondents said that if their identity were stolen today, they did not know if they had enough money in reserve to weather the recovery process. With an estimated 9 million victims each year, identity theft has been the number one complaint filed with the Federal Trade Commission for eight years in a row.

The new survey also found that 10 percent of identity theft victims polled missed payments due to the crime. Of those victims, four out of five say the theft caused serious repercussions – including lower credit scores, utilities shut off, bankruptcy, vehicle repossession, home foreclosure or even jail time.

“If the identity theft involves your credit cards you can often resolve the problems quickly. However, if the fraud involves a debit card, a loan or your health insurance, the impact can be costly and time consuming,” said Kirk Herath, Chief Privacy Officer for Nationwide Insurance. “With so many Americans losing their savings and investments, people have less money to fall back on during the time it takes to stop the bleeding.”

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The survey also found that 52 percent of respondents said they would tackle the recovery process from identity theft on their own.

“Nationwide’s previous polls found that identity theft victims spent an average of 81 hours trying to resolve their case and one in four cases were unresolved after a year of trying,” Herath said. “Identity theft not only takes a financial toll on victims, but an emotional one as well. Identity theft is the only crime where the victim is generally presumed guilty until he or she can prove their innocence.”

Read more: http://www.businesswire.com/portal/site/google/?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20090316005705&newsLang=en

[Nickster]

1. Here's an idea, how about smacking the heck out of the companies that have lax security

on their customer files? I'm sick and tired of getting one notice after the other, at least it seems like it, about how my customer data was exposed to some security flaw.

Just off the top of my head, I've had my data lost by the VA, I've had my debit card info compromised by a major office supply store, and my bank TWICE has had their data exposed. Each time I get a letter that states I should pay more attention to my credit report and "good luck" from the company that has carelessly left my info hanging in the breeze.

[Gormy Cuss]

2. And yet people don't see the need for stronger privacy laws.

The growth in identity fraud is a by product of lax privacy regulations.