Enterprise Security Today – James Van Dyke, president of Javelin, said in an interview that many Americans are too trusting on the phone. “In a typical situation, unsuspecting consumers receive phone calls from parties claiming to represent nonprofit organizations, billing institutions or other financial institutions,” Van Dyke said. “Far too many of these consumers provide the callers with personal information, such as Social Security numbers, bank account numbers and credit card numbers.”

With that information, criminals can open accounts in the victim’s name, empty existing bank accounts, even buy cars or homes.

While the Javelin study found that overall ID theft was falling, it also found that the cost for consumers to resolve the resulting fraud was rising.

The latest study indicated that 8.1 million Americans were victims of ID fraud in 2007, down from 8.4 million a year earlier and 10.1 million in 2003.

The total cost of ID fraud also dropped, to $45 billion in the latest study from $51 billion a year earlier and $56 billion in 2003.

Van Dyke attributed the drop to a variety of defensive steps by consumers and institutions, including “greater consumer vigilance and awareness, improvements in systems and practices by companies that manage personal information . . . and consumers more frequently updating spyware and antivirus software.”

But the average cost for a consumer to resolve the problem rose to $691 in 2007 from $554 a year earlier.

The reason, the report said, is “due to growing sophistication in criminal fraud techniques, particularly in new accounts fraud,” resulting in more high-value cases.

The biggest sources of personal identification information for thieves included: 33 percent from the loss or theft of a wallet, check or credit card; 23 percent from in-store, mail or telephone purchases; 17 percent from misappropriation of information by friends, relatives or in-home employees; 8 percent from computer viruses, spyware or hackers; 7 percent from data breaches; and 6 percent from stolen paper mail. Read Full Article