Newsday.com – “We have found that a much bigger percentage of information used for identity fraud is coming from accessing physical records—whether from a lost or stolen wallet, or somebody is Dumpster diving and gets a financial statement that’s not shredded or intercepting it in the mail,” said Bruce Cundiff, director of payments research at San Francisco-based Javelin Strategy & Research.

The number of identity fraud victims has decreased for the fifth year in a row, according to the 2008 Identity Fraud Survey Report conducted by Javelin. It noted that “with the overwhelming majority of banking institutions shoring up defenses for the online channel, it is only natural that criminals migrate away from online to telephone.”

Online access to sensitive information accounted for 14 percent of cases of identity fraud among victims who knew how their information was stolen, the report said, contrasted with the 33 percent of those cases where information came from a lost or stolen wallet, checkbook or credit card. Information accessed from a store, by mail or by telephone purchases or transactions made up 21 percent. Read Full Article