[November 04, 2009]

IdentityTruth IDs New Trends in Identity Theft

Nov 04, 2009 (Close-Up Media via COMTEX) -- IdentityTruth, a provider of a new breed of services to help consumers safeguard their privacy and identity, is issuing an alert to businesses and consumers on new trends in identity theft. IdentityTruth's statistics point to a continual year-to-year increase in identity theft related crimes, indicating that as criminals get more savvy, identity theft becomes easier to perpetrate.

As more and more of our financial transactions take place online, the company said, our laptops and desktops are loaded with incredibly sensitive information - social security numbers, tax filings, banking passwords, credit card numbers, medical records and more. This manifests in an alarming trend, discovered by IdentityTruth- in 2009, reported cases of stolen computers have more than doubled over 2008.

"Financial transactions are no longer limited to the personal desktop computer, taking security beyond the desktop and into the physical world. In addition, company employees are conducting personal financial transactions at their workplace, and relying on company firewalls and protection to keep their data safe," said Steven Domenikos, CEO of IdentityTruth. "Identity thieves are continuously devising new schemes, and deploying new technologies to perpetrate their crimes in every corner of where we work, play and live." Additional trends uncovered by IdentityTruth's research: -Hacking is UP: Think that cryptic passwords and anti-virus software keep you safe? Think again. Today's identity thieves use software that monitors keystrokes and sends passwords to remote locations, and even devices that allow for remotely copying an individual's desktop within a certain range! IdentityTruth's data collected over the course of the year from all the reported data breaches shows that cases of hacking have more than doubled for 2009 (vs. 2008).

-Phishing is DOWN: There is a reason why you haven't heard from the Prince of Namibia in a while - IdentityTruth's research points to a significant decrease in phishing emails as thieves are finding new, more effective ways to perpetrate fraud.

-Social Networking increases risk: Consumers regularly share personal information - including date of birth, home addresses, vacation dates and typical password retrieval prompts like "pet's name" and "city of birth"- on social networking sites, and identity thieves are taking notice. As these sites have given rise to an ocean of valuable personal data, IdentityTruth's data points to a 50 percent increase over the past year, in cases of web-generated identity theft.

-Returning to the classics: IdentityTruth's data points to a 100 percent increase in snail-mail based fraud - a special warning for consumers who may be unassuming of low-tech tactics. Diverting a person's mail is a relatively easy way to acquire valuable personal information.

Identity theft is America's fastest-growing crime, the group noted. More than 70 million identities will be lost this year alone with as many as 3 million social security numbers being stolen. Simple credit monitoring is not enough - only 15 percent of identity theft is credit-related (85 percent of identity fraud happens "outside" the credit system). IdentityTruth has discovered suspicious "identity events" for more than 1 out of 4 consumers who subscribe to its service.

IdentityTruth said its Faster than Fraud technology combines data from many different sources--going beyond simple credit-based protection to deliver a more complete picture of an individual's identity risk.

The service continuously combines and analyzes any and all information that is discovered specific to an individual to detect suspicious activities, report possible fraud before it happens and provide concrete next-steps to resolve a problem that may arise, the company noted in a release.

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