Did You Know the Difference Between Credit Card Theft and Identity Theft?

Survey: 28% of ID theft victims know crime source

By Seamus McAfee

More than one out of four victims of identity theft know how their personal information fell into the wrong hands. The remaining 72 percent are left wondering just how their identity was compromised, says a new study by the nonprofit coalition Identity Theft Assistance Center (ITAC).
The survey interviewed more than 1,500 identity theft victims who were helped by ITAC after experiencing an identity theft crime. Of the 28 percent of respondents who did know the source of the theft, 26.5 percentsaid it was caused by friends, relatives and in-home employees who had access to their personal information. Computer-related theft was the next most common crime at over 21 percent, followed by lost or stolen wallets, checkbooks and credit card accounts, at over 15 percent. Breaches of data, such as in the recent compromise of the Heartland Payment Systems database, only accounted for 4.7 percent of identity theft cases.

Taken from CreditCards.com

Identity theft

From Wikipedia(View original Wikipedia Article) Last modified on 15 December 2010, at 02:53 

From Wikipedia

Identity theft is a form of fraud or cheating of another person's identity in which someone pretends to be someone else by assuming that person's identity, typically in order to access resources or obtain credit and other benefits in that person's name. The victim of identity theft (here meaning the person whose identity has been assumed by the identity thief) can suffer adverse consequences if he or she is held accountable for the perpetrator's actions. Organizations and individuals who are duped or defrauded by the identity thief can also suffer adverse consequences and losses, and to that extent are also victims.
The term identity theft was coined in 1964^[1] and is actually a misnomer, since it is not literally possible to steal an identity as such - more accurate terms would be identity fraud or impersonation or identity cloning but identity theft has become commonplace.

"Determining the link between data breaches and identity theft is challenging, primarily because identity theft victims often do not know how their personal information was obtained," and identity theft is not always detectable by the individual victims, according to a report done for the FTC.^[2] Identity fraud is often but not necessarily the consequence of identity theft. Someone can steal or misappropriate personal information without then committing identity theft using the information about every person, such as when a major data breach occurs. A US Government Accountability Office study determined that "most breaches have not resulted in detected incidents of identity theft".^[3] the report also warned that "the full extent is unknown". A later unpublished study by Carnegie Mellon University noted that "Most often, the causes of identity theft is not known," but reported that someone else concluded that "the probability of becoming a victim to identity theft as a result of a data breach is ... around only 2%".^[4] More recently, an association of consumer data companies noted that one of the largest data breaches ever, accounting for over four million records, resulted in only about 1,800 instances of identity theft, according to the company whose systems were breached.^[5]

A recent article entitled, “Cyber Crime Made Easy" explained the level to which hackers are using malicious software. As one security specialist named Gunter Ollmann said, “Interested in credit card theft? There’s an app for that.” This statement summed up the ease with which these hackers are accessing all kinds of information online. The new program for infecting users’ computers is called Zeus; and the program is so hacker friendly that even an inexperienced hacker can operate it. Although the hacking program is easy to use, that fact does not diminish the devastating effects that Zeus (or other software like Zeus) can do to a computer and the user. For example, the article stated that programs like Zeus can steal credit card information, important documents, and even documents necessary for homeland security. If the hacker were to gain this information, it would mean identity theft or even a possible terrorist attack. (Giles, Jim. "Cyber Crime Made Easy." New Scientist 205.2752 (2010): 20-21. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Web. 3 Oct. 2010.)

Credit card theft is when someone uses your card without your authorization.  And most credit card companies will protect after the first $50 fraudulent charges.  Identity theft is when someone assumes the usage of your name, posing themselves as you.  Are you protected against IDT?


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I am an Independent Associate and Group Benefit Specialist of Prepaid Legal Services, Inc.