Volume I

Issue : 6: September 18, 2003

• Three Privacy Studies Recently Released
• Florida Supreme Court Rules State Employees Are Not Required to Disclose Emails
• Over 27 Million Victims of Identity Theft In The Last Five Years
• CIRA s New Policies and Amendments Effective as of September 25 2003
• UKs Advertising Standard Authority Issues First Spam Decision
• Delivery of Pop up Ads Found to be Legal
• Harvard Publishes UDRP Guide
• U.S. Court of Appeals Upholds City Refusal to Include Link To Publication Critical of City Officials
• U.S. Recording Industry Takes Action Against Individual Users and Announces Amnesty
• U.S. Justice Department Files Injunction to Shut Down RxDepot
• First Case Under Amber Alert Legislation
• Ontario To Use Software to Meet Privacy and Access to Information Laws
• Alberta Court of Appeal Upholds Acquittal of Spammer
• FDA Warns Website Selling Canadian Pharmaceuticals

Home > Volume I > Issue 6: September 18, 2003 > Over 27 Million Victims of Identity Theft In The Last Five Years

Over 27 Million Victims of Identity Theft In The Last Five Years

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission ("FTC") found that in the past five years, over 27 million people have been victims of identity theft. The rate of identity theft has increased drastically with 9.9 million people having been victims in the last year alone. The cost of these thefts over the past 5 years has been over $5 billion to individuals and $48 billion to businesses.

The FTC report looked at the following forms of identity theft: 1) "New Accounts & Other Fraud"; 2) "Misuse of Existing Non-Credit Card Account or Account Number"; and 3) "Misuse of Existing Credit Card or Credit Card Number".

The report suggests that when identity theft is discovered, within five months of it occurring, the damages are usually under $5,000.00. For this reason, it is recommended that individuals check their credit reports twice yearly.

To review the Report, please visit:

http://www.ftc.gov/os/2003/09/synovatereport.pdf

For additional information, please visit:

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/09/04/politics/04IDEN.html

http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/news/editorial/6682566.htm