Here's part 4 of an interesting article from Money magazine that lists several identity theft statistics -- many of which I found surprising. It's done in a question and answer format, so here is today's question:
Identity theft on the Internet is growing.
The answer:
False. Online fraud made up 9% of ID theft cases in which the source was known last year, down from 11.6% in 2004. People who bank online typically uncover fraud in 22 days vs. more than a month for paper accounts.
My thoughts:
1. I'm not sure I buy this information. Online may be down as a percentage, but the total number of cases could still be up (may the other forms of ID theft have grown at faster rates). I can't tell the true story from these stats though, there's not enough here.
2. Either way, I am surprised that Online ID theft isn't skyrocketing. With all the pfishing going on, I thought it would have been much, much higher.
3. Looks like there's another advantage of banking online -- faster detection of ID theft.
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