Identity Fraud Survey Shows ID Theft up 22%

Identity theft rose by nearly 25 percent last year in the United States, according to a new report released today. The 2009 Identity Fraud Survey Report by Javelin Strategy & Research shows that the number of identity fraud victims increased 22 percent to 9.9 million people being hit, at a total cost of $48 billion.

According to James Van Dyke, president and founder of Javelin, this is the first year since the report began in 2004 that the numbers have gone up. "The industry was surprised at the whopping size of identity theft when it was first studied in the early part of the millennium, but it was beaten back strongly. But now, with the tough economy, criminals have become more desperate, and identity theft has gone up for the first time since we began tracking it," Van Dyke says.

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