| The Facts |
| 1 in 5 households have been effected by Credit Fraud in the passed five years, (up from 1 in 50 people). |
| The FTC has recently released updated numbers September 2003. What was previously estimated at 500,000 to 700,000 victims in the passed year was revised to 10 million victims. |
| Total losses to consumers in the passed five years has reached 5 Billion dollars and business losses have reached of 55 billion dollars. |
| From 2000 to 2001, the Federal Trade Commission reports a 46% increase in Credit Fraud and Identity Theft. |
| February 2003, an unknown hacker compromised over 8 million credit card accounts (1 in every 100 accounts in the US) including VISA, MasterCard, American Express and Discover. (Report from The Associated Press, CNN, MSNBC and FOX News). |
| The Social Security Department reports that there was a 480% increase in fraud involving social security numbers between 1998 and 2000. These numbers are on the rise. |
| The average time spent in correcting Credit Fraud and ID Theft takes approximately 180 hours and more than two years. Most often, the consumer does not successfully recover the losses or catch the criminal. (reported by the FTC). |
| Homeland Security and the Defense Department both concur that E-Crimes (electronic crimes) are on the rise. It is suspected that numerous criminal elements are obtaining data for Credit Fraud, ID Theft, Security Accesses, Banking Fraud, Insurance Fraud and more. |
| The FTC reports that Credit Fraud and Identity Theft are this Nations largest growing crimes and are the largest growing sector of organized crime. |
