Phishing

The Hidden Story Behind Identity Fraud Statistics

Each year, thousands of people become victims of identity theft. While identity fraud statistics have their purposes, they do not adequately portray the seriousness and trauma associated with this type of crime. To begin, identity fraud statistics often only measure monetary loss, and the cost of catching and prosecuting perpetrators. These numbers do not say anything about the emotional trauma of having your identity stolen, or the time that must be spent cleaning up the trail of debts and other problems that get racked up as a result of a stolen identity.

Anyone that meets or sees someone that looks just like them can begin to understand what it feels like to have their unique identity challenged. On the other hand, someone that mimics your every action or word usage can easily appear to be someone intent on attacking your character, or playing a cruel joke. Unfortunately, identity fraud statistics cannot adequately portray these kinds of intangible elements and feelings. Nevertheless, having someone to pretend to be you for monetary reasons can easily be embarrassing and upsetting.

Identity fraud statistics also fail to convey the level of fear and worry that comes with learning that someone else has assumed your identity. Even if you learn that your identity has been stolen fairly soon after the initial event, it can take weeks and months to ensure that all of your financial information is changed over and safe. Together with this, identity fraud statistics fail to account for the aggravation and nuisance associated with having to rearrange the automatic deposits and payments that make your budget and time run smoothly.

For all their shortcomings, identity fraud statistics have some useful purposes. First, a person that is a victim of identity theft is more than likely to report it to the authorities. Thus, identity fraud statistics may be one of the few crime statistics that actually represents almost the entire pool of victims.

Because identity fraud statistics can be fairly accurate, they provide a barometer to measure the levels of desperation within a society. For the most part, people that engage in identity theft do so for financial reasons. While the person in question may have an underlying mental illness, they are more than likely driven by purely pecuniary interests. Thus, if other means were available for them to make money, they might not have stolen another person's identity to begin with. As the mortgage industry continues to collapse, and our economy continues to degrade, identity fraud statistics may be a leading indicator of just how good or bad the economy is, irregardless of statistics from other sources.

For the most part, identity fraud statistics measure how much money is spent dealing with this type of crime. Because feelings are intangible and have no price tag, they are difficult to put into a nice neat set of statistics. On the other hand, chances are victims of identity theft will report it as soon as they find out. Because this type of thief is often financially motivated, fluctuations in this type of crime may be a useful indicator of trends in the overarching economy of our nation.