After reading this press release, I asked myself how many dormant accounts I might have.  According to a survey conducted by Ipsos Reid for Capital One, in Canada, there are more than 41 million abandoned online accounts, and they all have risk exposure to ID theft and/or fraud.

The Cap1 study shows that two out of the average of nine online accounts owned by Canadian adults (adding up to a total of 41 million accounts) have become inactive as a result of the lack of their use throughout 2007.

These abandoned online accounts, ranging from shopping and email to social networking and dating sites, become vulnerable to ID theft and fraud. This is due to the fact that even if customers do not use the accounts anymore, they still leave personal information available, including names, addresses, dates of birth or telephone numbers online.

According to the results of Cap1's survey, the main reasons for which Canadian customers pay little attention to inactive accounts are their lack of awareness or carelessness. (eh?)

Thus, 28 percent of them were not even aware of the fact that they had to close their inactive account(s), 23 percent stated that they even forgot about it, while 15 percent forgot the password.

When asked about how often they review their credit bureau report, 72 percent of Canadians answered "rarely" or "never". 20 of them gave the same answer when asked whether they check if a certain website is secure before making an online purchase. 12 percent of Canadians rarely/never look for unexpected or incorrect charges in their credit card statements.