Considering the kind of damage that identity theft and credit card fraud can do to your life, many consumers want to know just how prevalent these crimes are. Is identity theft becoming more common as criminals get more sophisticated, or are better security measures making it more difficult? Which demographics are at the biggest risk of financial fraud? And how much of an impact do data breaches have?
To find out, we’ve reviewed the data to understand the trends on identity theft, credit card fraud and data breaches.
Before we begin, let’s clarify the difference between fraud and identity theft. Fraud is any sort of criminal deception intended for personal or financial gain. Identity theft involves using someone else’s personal information for fraudulent purposes. Therefore, identity theft is one of many different types of fraud.