Identity Theft Hits Women Hardest
Who is most affected by identity theft, who commits the crime and how can people protect themselves? When it comes to the theft of personal information, women beware. According to a study by Affinion Security Center, 17% percent of female identity theft victims have lost $1,000 or more due to the crime, versus only 10% of males.
In addition, more men (61%) avoided losing money than women (53%).
The good news is that most of the cases of identity theft were solved, although some were solved faster than others.
Forty-two percent of cases were closed in less than one week, 20% took between one week and one month and 13% took two months to six months.
A survey from the Identity Theft Assistance Center (ITAC) found that 72% of victims had no idea know who stole their personal information.
Of those that did, most cases (26.5%) were committed by friends, relatives or in-home employees who had access to personal information. Next came computer-related fraud (21.6%), lost or stolen wallets, checkbooks and credit card accounts (15.1%) and mail fraud (11.6%)
How can consumers protect themselves?
- Shredding documents before disposal
- Monitoring credit card accounts
- Keeping personal information locked in a safe
Protect your brand. Get the digital marketing and media information you need. Look into an eMarketer Total Access subscription today.
As a woman, I already feel vulnerable to predators knowing that I can't fully protect myself 'cause I'm not as strong as men. And now, I feel doubly vulnerable to identity thieves! Is it because women are easier to fool? Or is it because women have more money to steal?
If women were more easier to fool they wouldn't have more money then men!
Security is something that concerns us all, security not only at our homes and office but security of an all together different magnitude and proportion. Biometrics refers to the method of recognizing humans on the basis of the physical attributes and even behavioral conditions for access control or identity access management. Most of you would have seen such things in Hollywood movies. If you have watched ‘Mission Impossible’ or ‘Charlie’s Angels’ then you would recall that eye encryption or finger print impression were required to enter an unauthorized section of a building.
I did the "biometrics" thing. I was a founding shareholder (1 of 3) of a company called Solidus Networks, dba "Pay By Touch way back in 2002. Visit: http://biometricpayments.blogspot.com to learn more.
JBF