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Online Identity Fraud Exaggerated |
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Written by Leigh Gallo
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Monday, 06 February 2006 |
A banking industry sponsored survey done for the Better Business Bureau indicates that online fraud is not as pervasive as one would think given the news reports on identity theft over the past year.
The survey, conducted by Javelin Strategy & Research, indicates that fraud is decreasing and that offline fraud is much more frequent than online fraud given telephone poll responses by 5,000 consumers:
- The percentage of Americans affected by identity fraud fell from 4.7 to 4.0 percent between 2003 and 2006.
- The number of consumers tagged by fraud has declined from 10.1 million in 2003 to 9.3 million in 2005.
- Of the 53 percent of fraud victims who could name the cause, only 9 percent identified the online world as the source.
While it has been reported that online fraud attempts have significantly increased, these attempts do not appear to result in greater occurences of online fraud. As always, consumers should be encouraged to avoid giving out any personal information, use personal firewalls and keep anti-virus software up to date. |
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