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02/13/2018

ID Fraud Hits All Time High: What You Can Do to Protect Yourself

Credit.com

Not to name names (cough, cough, Equifax), but it seems a particular data breach involving the sensitive information of 145.5 million people may have something to do with the spike in identity-related crimes reported in Javelin Strategy and Research’s 2018 Identity Fraud Study.

As if 2016’s record didn’t serve as warning enough, along comes 2017 with 1.3 million more people—the total coming to 16.7 million identity fraud victims with the amount stolen rising to $16.8 billion—still significantly less than the record loss of 2012, which was $22 billion—but clearly a disturbing bit of news for consumers.

The latest “successes” in the field of identity-related fraud are particularly terrifying when you consider that the study also found that “rising fraud incidence and extensive media coverage of the Equifax breach,” has increased public awareness. “The proportion of consumers who are concerned about fraud rose from 51 percent in 2016 to 69 percent in 2017.”

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