The Javelin Conundrum: Making Sense of the Latest Identity Theft Numbers

The Javelin Conundrum (cont.)

Physical change of address is now the means of choice for existing account takeover. So think twice before you elect to not shred and simply toss out pre-approved credit card offers and change of address forms and fail to read mail from institutions and the post office requesting confirmation of your change of residence.

Social networking junkies who have been lost in cyberspace for at least 5 years are twice as likely to be victims of identity theft.

While financial services organizations will happily e-mail or text customers that there may be a problem, only 81% of those institutions provide 24/7 access to the tools necessary to shut down the source of the problem.

Get everything you need to master your credit today.

Get started for free

[Resource: Identity Theft Emergency]

While Javelin opines that there was a drop in larger breaches of mega-corporations that expose tens of millions of consumers – who are eight times more likely to face victimization if they receive notice of their inclusion into the identity theft sweepstakes – to the crime (Good Night and Bad Luck, Alberto Gonzalez), fraud experts at Credit.com’s sister company Identity Theft 911 are seeing a greater proliferation of breaches at smaller businesses. These organizations more often than not have neither the security protocols nor resources of the big guys to help them avoid a compromise or, worst case, navigate the comprehensive regulatory, legal and customer service requirements and could well cease to exist in the absence of appropriate insurance combined with professional incident response assistance.

Is that a facial twitch?

The takeaways

Shredders, anti-virus software, firewalls, post boxes, safes, encrypted thumb-drives, strong passwords, zipped lips and lighter fingers on the keyboards should be priorities.

Credit and public records monitoring programs are becoming even more necessary to your life as online visits to your bank and credit card accounts should be to your daily routine.

You need to ask your insurance agent, banker, credit union service representative, or HR Director if they or their institution offer a program either as a perk, policy endorsement or purchase that can stop the pain, limit the personal carnage and restore normalcy if you become a statistic in this nightmarish census.

Assuming $37 billion is the ultimate figure – it is, indeed, daunting and represents that which a sampling of consumers endured over the past year. But what about the experiences of the millions of Americans who were not surveyed, or the economic, psychic and human cost of criminal, medical, synthetic, child and unreported familial identity theft?

Frankly, these results sure feel a lot like last week’s unemployment number. It dropped to 9 percent from 9.8 percent the month before. However, is anyone really convinced that means more people are actually finding work? I think a heck of a lot of folks simply stopped looking.

Likewise, the seemingly downward trend in this latest Javelin survey could give the impression that identity theft is on the wane. Are you really ready to take that to the bank? We are living in the golden age of identity theft. Either willingly through sites like Facebook, unwillingly through data breaches, or unwittingly through theft of mail, dumpster diving, phishing, vishing, skimming or theft of purses and wallets, people are routinely discovering that their sensitive personal information has gone astray.

[Featured tool: Get your free Credit Report Card from Credit.com]