Eye on the Market

Finding the Source…

According to the Identity Theft Assistance Center (ITAC, online at www.identitytheftassistance.org), Washington, two out of five ID theft victims surveyed by the organization know how their personal data was stolen, providing valuable insight about how identity theft occurs.

"This information is important because the more we know about the sources of identity theft, the more successful we all will be in fighting this crime," ITAC Executive Director Anne Wallace says.

ITAC surveyed 275 ID theft victims who used the center’s free service during a one-month period. Of the 275 cases, 160 consumers (58 percent) did not know the source of their identity theft. Another 115 consumers (42 percent) did know how their information was compromised. The 115 consumers attributed their identity theft to the following sources:

ITAC is a nonprofit organization "dedicated to fighting identity theft through victim assistance, research and law enforcement partnerships." It was established in August of 2004 and is sponsored by The Financial Services Roundtable and BITS.

Documents Dumped

According to an Associated Press (AP) report, thousands of documents, including visa applications from California business and political leaders, sat in the yard of the Haight Ashbury Neighborhood Council recycling center for more than a month after the Indian consulate dumped them.

The applications contained personal information, such as names, addresses, birth dates, employer names, passport numbers and photos.

Indian Consul General B.S. Prakash told AP, "As we see it, the documents are not confidential. We would see something as confidential if it has a Social Security number or a credit card number, not a passport number."

However, according to the report, it is possible to find out someone’s Social Security number from the data.

According to consulate officials, they ran out of storage room and hired a firm to carry the documents to the recycling center, thinking the material would be shredded. Instead, the boxes, marked "visa applications," were dumped at the site.

New York has the highest rate of ID theft, according to research by San Diego, Calif.-based ID Analytics Inc., owner and operator of the ID Network.

The company’s research, which is based on actual and attempted fraud rather than on consumer victim reports, shows that New York, California, Nevada, Arizona, Illinois, Hawaii, Oregon, Michigan, Washington and Texas have the highest rates of ID fraud.

Wyoming, Vermont, Montana, North Dakota, New Hampshire, Ohio, Maine, Iowa, West Virginia and South Dakota have the lowest rates of ID fraud, according to the research, which Stephen Coggeshall, ID Analytics chief technology officer, authored.

When examined at a three-digit zip code level, the 10 metropolitan areas with the highest identity fraud rates are New York; Detroit; Los Angeles; Little Rock, Ark.; Greenville, Miss.; Atlanta; Phoenix; Portland, Ore.; Dallas; and Springfield, Ill.