The complaints of identity theft increased by a third in 2012 and again it was the number one problem in the United States. This rate of increase is almost three times the growth rate from 2010-2011 (12%).
Top 10 consumer complaints to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) report for 2012 , released today.
The FTC Consumer Sentinel Network Data Book - an online database of consumer complaints to law enforcement - recorded more than two million consumer complaints in 2012, an increase of 8.8 percent. The increase was largely driven by the jump in identity theft complaints, up 54 percent to 369,132 anually. The 2012 Digest divides claims into three basic categories - fraud (52%), identity theft (18%) and other -. And examined changes over time
Tax evasion and the salary was the main purpose of the stolen personal data. Of all identity theft complaints, 43.4% fell into that category - an increase of almost two percentage points compared to 2010. tax evasion is mainly driven by criminal networks that steal PII (personally identifiable information) such as social security numbers and use them to electronically file for refunds for income tax.
The strong growth of tax fraud and pay well over other uses for the IIP flight. Complaints about credit card fraud amounted to 13.4% with a telephone and 9.7% utility fraud.
The connection between PII stolen and tax and wage fraud is even higher for members of the armed forces. More than a third of all complaints by the military, 37% were for identity theft. Of these, 49% said that the data was misused for tax and wage fraud.
Geography is important in regard to identity theft. Florida was the clear leader for identity theft, with 85% more complaints per capita than any other state. It was followed by Georgia, California, Michigan and New York.
The age of identity theft victims is changing, with an increase in older victims. The percentage of complaints from a 50+ crowd rose six percentage points to 36%. Moreover, the 29 and under group dipped four percentage points to 27%. That said, the FTC reported in previous years that children and students are the main target groups for identity thieves because they have credit or limited employment histories and thus have a clean slate for criminal activities .
Consumers can reduce their vulnerability to identity theft by installing and using Hotspot Shield VPN, especially while using public WiFi networks. HotspotShield also detects and blocks phishing sites that can be used to steal important information, and other types of malicious software that can be downloaded to your computer or mobile device and be used to capture sensitive data. Furthermore, Hotspot Shield protect consumers when they use public WiFi by encrypting all data transmissions. This protects your valuable information against hackers and weasel that can easily intercept your transmission if it is not fixed.
Learn more about the dangers of malware by visiting, http://www.hotspotshield.com/malware-protection
For more information on the report consumer fraud, visit : http://www.ftc.gov/sentinel/reports/sentinel-annual-reports/sentinel-cy2012.pdf
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