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Survey Indicates ID Theft May Be Diminishing
netbuzz passed us a link discussing a survey conducted by major credit firms. Keeping in mind the source (CheckFree, Visa, and WellsFargo), the results indicate identity theft may be on the downswing as consumers wise up to scammers. The number of respondents that reported a fraudulent account created with a stolen identity dropped by a full half percentage point between 2005 and 2006. Overall fraud apparently dropped by some 12% over last year, representing $6.4 billion in fraud reduction. Again, consider the source: identity fraud is still apparently costing some $49.3 billion annually.
It's interesting that they're reporting this ; but you can't take flat-out numbers with a grain of salt. They're either correct or complete lies ; and I think we all know they have to be complete lies.
These companies don't report half the cases of identity theft to end-consumers, banks and definitely not the police because they don't want to alarm anybody -- especially when the case is unsolvable. I've had my bank card 'suspended' 3 times in the past two years because someone has stolen my pin and copied the card at a gas station or variety store and the bank tells me only, "The card was copied along with a number of other cards. Your account hasn't been effected, just come into the bank for a new card and choose a new pin".
My account hasn't been affected because the bank noticed it and silently footed the bill ; only even bothering to tell me because I couldn't use the card. I imagine a credit card that has no PIN on it - you would never notice ; and how much easier would it be to copy a credit card. You don't need to read the pin over someone's shoulder.
If theft is down or up you'll never know the truth. If it's down by half, why wouldn't they say it's down by 3/4's. Even a reduction, if it occurred would likely be embellished.
Speaking of embellished.
Ace
We sent a survey out by e-mail asking people for their name, phone number, credit card number, SSN, mother's maiden name, and asking if they had their identity stolen in the last year. 99% of those who responded with all the info, said they hadn't, while 80% of all responses said, "I'm not falling for that again." From this we conclude only 1% of people on average have been victims of identity theft.
...or that could be their methodology. It is hard to say since they do not seem to have published it, effectively making this study useless marketing. That makes sense given who paid for it.
I guess that's better than a plain old regular half a percent.
Don't disappoint your bird dog. Go to the range.
I have a different perspective on scams and phishing (which often lead to ID theft).
In a way, the perpetrators of these ripoffs are actually doing humanity a favor. They are making stupidity more painful.
About the only case during which ID theft can happen that you cannot easily attribute (at least partially) to a fault of the victim is when customer information is stolen from a legitimate business and then abused to steal identities. Practically all of the rest of it relies on the naive nature and/or the greed of the victim, and both of these should be recognized as weaknesses, the exploitation of which is an eventuality. Put another way, anyone who sincerely believes that online requests for account numbers, their social security number, etc. should be responded to without first verifying their legitimacy is a fool, is begging for something like this to happen, and should see any theft that does happen as an educational experience in why you don't trust random, unverified strangers with your most confidential personal information.
If someone walked up to you in the street and said "Hi, I'm a manager at your bank, we need your account number and all of your personal information," you'd likely tell them (however politely or however rudely) to fuck off. At the very least, you'd ask to see some credentials before you'd actually give out any personal information. Why is it that when the same thing occurs via e-mail, so many people people shut down their common sense and critical thinking skills (whatever degree of those that may be left) and happily say "oh wow, I sure am glad they contacted me for my full name, address, date of birth, social security number, mother's maiden name, and account numbers before they locked my account!"? Would you really feel sorry for someone who did this? Or would you decide that the scammer in this case is providing one of the few remaining incentives to not be so careless and stupid with things that are important?
A simple observation can be made: all scams rely on either the stupidity (the willingness to give confidential information to anonymous people) or the greed (the expectation of receiving large sums of money for very little or no work), or both, of the victim. It would be impossible or nearly impossible to arrest and prosecute every last phisher and con artist in the world who wants to rip people off; indeed, even attempting to do so would require a police state. While it is still a good idea to go after the scammers, since it increases the risk of earning a living by ripping people off, this alone is never going to solve the problem. I propose that the problem could be solved not by going after relatively anonymous scammers who pop up all over the globe, but by hardening the targets. This is never going to happen so long as we coddle the less-bright (as evidenced by behavior) among us by telling them that they're innocent, helpless little people who fell victim to the big mean old scammers, but it could happen if we remind them that the event did not happen in isolation, that they exhibited contributory negligence, that in most cases no one gets your confidential information unless you personally give it to them, and that their lack of discernment helps to fund organized crime.
Just an idea, and it's something that I have never seen implemented on any sort of large scale, but what I do know is that what we are doing right now is not very effective. In any case, Aesop definitely had it right: a fool and his money are soon parted. You can't realistically remove the money from that equation, and you can't remove the desire to steal from every person on the planet, but you can certainly remove the fool from that equation.
It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education. - Einstein
This only looks at one specific type of fraud - applying for credit cards in someone else's name. There are many other scams out there, such as plain old carding. Also really popular lately is to steal bank account login/pw via phishing or keyloggers. Did they count that? What about ATM skimmers? I don't think there has been an overall decline, criminals are just using different methods.