ID Theft: Crimes Being Detected Earlier by Institutions

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Financial institutions must execute best practices internally and do a better job educating their customers on identity theft.

This is the advice stemming from the Identity Theft Resource Center (ITRC), which recently released its sixth annual report, Identity Theft: The Aftermath 2008, providing essential information for financial institutions to protect their customers from ID theft.

Banking security leaders and government security leaders need to implement best practices, according to Linda Foley, Founder and Chairman of the ITRC. "Authenticate the people you're interacting with," she says. "Look at your company and try to evaluate all areas a thief could possibly take advantage of. Plug those holes and develop a written policy for the staff. We have to find better ways to authenticate, which will then allow someone to say, 'I can show you that is not me.'"

Foley sees the atmosphere changing in regards to ID theft. "People are [now] going to embrace processes that will help to protect their information and to avoid allowing an identity thief from using that information," she says.

The report, supported by the U.S. Department of Justice's Office for Victims of Crime, analyzed different areas of statistics dealing with the victims of ID theft crimes. The topics included: prevalence of types of ID theft crimes, medical ID theft, moment of discovery, uses of victim information, costs to victim, cost to business, victim hours repairing damage, inability to clear negative records, secondary effects and emotional impact.

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The biggest differences this year come from proactive measures taken by businesses and their customers. With advancing technology, crimes are being recognized earlier and steps are being taken immediately to correct the damage.

Another important change is the rise in denied credit and credit card cancellations caused from ID theft. This is due to the increased difficulty surrounding each case. No victim is the same, and every situation calls for different measures. This makes it harder for businesses and consumers to clean up the mess, making it tough on the victims, causing them to lose their credit until the problem is fixed.

"ITRC firmly believes that only a collaborative effort will provide us with the tools needed to thwart identity thieves," the report says. "Unless we adopt a policy of 'it is us' against the criminals, the criminals will continue to win."

The report was made up of 43 questions covering 15 categories, and the findings released were based on highlights from The Aftermath 2008 study. Survey respondents, 100 in total, included victims the ITRC worked with throughout 2008.

"There is no one type of crime or identity theft victim," according to Foley. "Each case is unique and has its own complexities. That is why we work with them rather than just having them use an online program that cannot customize the steps a victim must take."

For Foley, there will always be identity theft. "You cannot prevent identity theft from occurring or reoccurring," she says. "Unfortunately, it always ends up on the victim's shoulders to clean up the mess because no one else is going to do it for them. Companies aren't going to do it on their own."