ID Theft Victims Will Double In Next Four Years

Internet users today find themselves at fault even without doing anything wrong. On many occasions, people find all savings withdrawn from their banks, credit card users receive hefty bills and not to talk of the unsolicited e-mails or spams flooding our emails on daily basis.

Such bizarre incidents are consequences of ID theft; an organized crime where criminals are invisible and victims are common peoples using same password for multiple websites. Hackers invade different online sources and databases, steal personal information and manufacture identities to break into user's account. The recent stealing of 650,000 gamer's IDs from the database of the 'Second Life' online game is a sticking case of ID theft.

Presently, ID theft is worth £ 85,000 including earning potentials of £ 14,000 from bank and credit card frauds, £ 60,000 from misuse of credit rating, £ 5,000 from counterfeiting passports, another £ 5,000 from sham marriages and£ £ 1,000 from fake driving licenses. According to Garlik, a fraud management firm, ID theft will be worth £ 4 billion by 2010 victimizing 200,000 citizens every year, which is double the present figure of 100,000 victims per year. ID theft costs the UK economy £ 1.7 billion every year.

As per one survey by You Gov, 45% of UK citizens are now worried about their online privacy but only 14% use different passwords for different websites. Strikingly, 12% and 70% citizens disclose bank details & give away home addresses online respectively, increasing their vulnerability to ID frauds.

Internet experts firms like Sophos and Intego recommend users to keep their systems updated with proper security software use different passwords for different websites and construct innovative passwords hard for the hackers to replicate or manufacture. Careful use of the Internet is the only option to keep away from the fraudsters.

Related article: IT Security Brings Down Vulnerabilities in U.K. Companies

» SPAMfighter News - 11/7/2006