Identity Thieves Not Big On Technology

alphadogg sends us to Network World, as is his wont, for a summary of a new study of identity theft based on the outcomes of more than 500 Secret Service cases from 2000 to 2006. Here is the study report (PDF). The AP has coverage emphasizing other slants on the findings. Among the surprises: just 51% of convicted ID thieves were sent to prison. Only 20% of the cases involved use of the Internet, and such cases may be on the decline. More perpetrators used good old-fashioned dumpster diving and stealing stuff out of mailboxes.

Comments

Declining use of the Internet for ID theft?

[olehenning]

That's odd. This summer in Norway, over 100 000 people got their identity stolen when web-services using the registry of all norwegian citizens (to perform tasks like credit check etc.) leaked personal information. I was one of the victims after 60 000 of those thefts happened through Tele2's website (and I have never had anything to do with Tele2 before). Funny thing is, Tele2 knew about the flaw for about 8 months (after several warnings from the Norwegian Data Inspectorate) before the attack and did nothing to fix it. With that kind of mentality and ignorance among people who have access to our personal information, why should I believe that it is declining? Because someone somewhere have statistics that might suggest that it is?

maybe because...

[FudRucker]

they are thieves more interested in stealing money, they are not technophiles...