The Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) has a sobering new report finding identity theft cost Americans $10 billion more last year than all other property crimes measured by the National Crime Victimization Survey.
While identity theft cost Americans $24.7 billion in 2012, losses for household burglary, motor vehicle theft, and property theft totaled just $14 billion.
The BJS report measures both direct and indirect losses tied to identity theft. Direct losses, the majority of the $24.7 billion, consisted of the money thieves got by misusing a victim’s personal info or account information. Indirect losses included other costs associated with identity theft — like legal fees and bounced checks.
The BJS’s last report on identity theft, for the year 2010, measured just direct losses and put them at $13.1 billion. While that report didn’t measure indirect losses, a separate research firm called Javelin Strategy and Research found this year that identity thefts are indeed on the rise.
Here are some key points from the BJS report:
- 85% of theft incidents involved the fraudulent use of existing accounts, rather than the use of somebody’s name to open a new account.
- People whose names were used to — For more information read the original article here.
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