How was 2017 a record year for identity theft?
Despite all efforts to curb ID theft, 2017 hit a record year for identity theft cases. According to a recently released annual survey, the latest statistics show that ID thieves are becoming increasingly more sophisticated.
“In the past, criminals would get and sell bits and pieces of your personal information,” said Al Pascual, Sr VP and head of fraud at Javelin Strategy & Research. “Now they have everything — your name, address, Social Security number — and they’re taking over multiple accounts at a time.”
Javelin’s latest survey, released in February 2018, found that over 16 million people were affected by identity theft in 2017, the most ever.
With all the new technology out there to deter ID theft, how are the numbers still increasing instead of going down?
Thieves have changed their focus to online transactions now considering the banks have adopted sophisticated chip card technology. For example, cybercriminals might pull passwords and other personal information from a poorly secured cell phone account and then use the information to open Amazon and PayPal accounts. Approximately 1 million victims had such accounts opened in their names before their existing accounts were compromised. Account takeover fraud tripled over the past year, reaching a four-year high.
Almost 30 percent of U.S. consumers were notified of a breach in the past year, up from 12 percent in 2016. For the first time ever, Social Security numbers, at 35% were compromised more than credit card numbers, at 30%, in breaches.
Although protecting yourself will not deter ID theft completely, hiring a leader in ID theft protection, LifeLock, will help in the unfortunate case you become a victim. With LLPromoCodes.com we have the most current codes available for LifeLock protection. It is never to late to protect yourself from ID theft.
