Identity Theft Statistics: The Most Important Numbers

It is a social responsibility for everyone to know that how serious of a crime is identity theft. The identity theft has been increasing day by day which needs to be stopped in order to maintain one’s own protection. Hence in this article few of the statistics of identity theft to prove the importance of this awareness. The concept of identity theft was first recognized in the 1990’s and was mentioned in the literature. According to the studies the rime had increased 11-20% between the years 2001-2002. But thereafter by the year 2003 there was a great jump to 80% increase.

It was a relief when the Better Bureau or Javelin survey showed that between the years 2003-2006 there was a fall in the percentage of identity theft. According to the United States statistics the number of identity theft adult victims in 2003 was 10.1 million, in 2005 it was 9.3 million and then in 2006 it was 8.9 million. The statistics also showed that in Texas the increase of identity theft was traumatizing as between the years 2004 and 2005 the cases increased by 700%. As per the estimation of the Bureau of Justice Statistics, within a period of six months in 2004 about 3.6 million households became a victim of identity theft.

Its not only the households are affected in all the cases, consequences have also occurred for the businesses too. The statistics of identity theft have shown that approximately it might cost a company about $90,000 or even more than that, that too in a case where a single laptop is stolen. It has also been stated that 45% of the identity theft cases are a victim of stolen laptops. 29% of the identity theft cases happened due to leakage of information by the outsourcing companies or even the third parties.