Minorities Are Targets of Identity Theft
Categories: Consumer fraud, Identity theft, Credit fraud
In a recent market study published by Javelin Strategy & Research, analyst, Rubina Johanna determined that minorities have a higher victim rate of identity theft and credit card fraud. The comprehensive study on the identity theft epidemic made the following findings:
• Over the last year, nearly nine million American adults have been victims of identity theft or credit card fraud.
• Annual losses from identity fraud have soared by more than 20 percent over the past two years.
• Financial losses from identity theft averages $6,383 per victim.
• Both financial institutions and retailers accumulated losses from credit card theft totals more than $56 billion
• Hispanics and African-Americans hold the highest incident rate of identity fraud (56 percent) in individuals aged 25-54.
• The fraud cases of annual identity fraud losses of these two ethnicities, (African-Americans and Hispanics) totals approximately, $20 billion or 35 percent
• Households with an annual income of more than $150,000 are 50 percent more apt to be victimized however the financial losses is the income demographic accounts for only six percent ($3.6 billion) of total annual losses
• Fifty-eight percent of American consumers with an annual income less than $35,000 shred their personal information
• On the contrary, individuals with incomes above $35,000 shred personal financial records at an average rate of 75 percent.
• The most targeted victims of identity fraud were low income households of young adults and certain ethnicities.
Copyright 2006 fruitionMedia.net
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