LifeLock Blog

Every year there are more statistics released about the aftermath of identity theft, including the average expense ($951) and the time it takes to resolve (165 hours). But those figures oversimplify the experiences of many identity theft victims. The Identity Theft Resource Center’s annual survey of ID theft victims more fully reveals the complete impact of identity theft.

For instance, in more than half of all identity theft instances, arrest warrant were issued in the victims’ names for crimes committed by the thief (56%). Others (57%) ended up with criminal records after their impostor was arrested, booked or arraigned using the stolen identity. (Respondents were able to report more than one category, so total exceeds 100%; and, of course, it makes sense that in many cases a warrant would precede arrest, etc.)

More than two-thirds of ID theft victims were billed for medical services received by the impostor (67%), and 56% were contacted by a billing department or collection agency for the medical bills. Most frightening, 33% discovered another person’s information in their medical records.

And, in the aftermath of identity theft, many victims report lingering emotional effects that approach the clinical definition of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) as defined by the DSMIV-TR, the bible of the American Psychiatric Association:

• 14% report physical safety fears
• 63% report feelings of helplessness
• 31% report denial or disbelief
• 27% report feelings of isolation
• 31% reveal inability to trust people
• 40% report sleep disturbances
• 65% report rage or anger
• 27% report inability to concentrate

The Identity Theft Resource Center released the results this week of their most recent data breach study, an analysis of data breaches publicly reported so far this year. Little of the news is good, but two of the ITRC’s findings are especially alarming.

Perhaps the most disturbing discovery is that of the roughly 250 reported breaches, only one of the victims could say the stolen information was encrypted.

Almost every state has laws compelling entities to report data breaches, but apparently even the fear of public disclosure and bad publicity still isn’t enough to make businesses and other organizations protect the data they hold.

“It’s a dual problem here undeterred by law or common sense,” said Linda Foley, co-founder of the ITRC. “You’d think if all these organizations have to notify, that they would take some steps to make sure their data doesn’t get exposed in the first place.”

Another surprising finding is that employees are stealing records at the same rate as hackers. Together, the two types of attacks are responsible for 36.4% of the roughly 250 data breaches reported publicly this year as of June 12.

The only good news to be found in the study is that the total number of data breaches is down by roughly 30% from the same time last year when 342 breaches had already been reported.

Unfortunately, even that slight ray of sunshine is dimmed by the fact that at least 12 million businesses and consumers are affected by this year’s data breaches, and the total is probably far greater than that; fewer than half of the entities that reported breaches revealed the number of victims affected.

The Identity Theft Resource Center released their sixth annual retrospective report on ID theft this week, “Identity Theft: The Aftermath 2008.”

This year’s report provides a lot of pertinent information lacking in previous years’ reporting. For instance, this year’s report broke 0ut subcategories for loans taken out by identity thieves, revealing that the most common type of loan taken out was mortgages or second mortgages (33%).

This most recent report also provides new information about medical identity theft and how victims discovered the theft. In nearly all cases, victims discovered the thefts when they received bills or calls from bill collectors for medical services they never received. More alarming, though, is that 33% discovered the crime when they found out there was someone else’s medical information in their records.

The Identity Theft Resource Center (ITRC) estimated last year that in every schoolroom there is at least one child victim of identity theft. Sadly, the crime probably won’t be discovered for many years, and the younger the victim, the longer the crime will go undetected, which explains why 17% of child identity theft crimes begin before the victim is even a year old. The perpetrators of child identity theft are most often children’s parents, stepparents or other family members.

In light of the new information in the ITRC report, you owe it to yourself and your family to learn more about how LifeLock protects their members. Visit LifeLock.com for more information. When you’re ready to enroll, use the LifeLock promo code DEFENSE and to get the absolute lowest price available.