8 Of 10 Americans Worried About Identity Theft

According to a recent poll by Bankrate, 8 of 10 Americans are worried about identity theft, spcifically having their identities stolen. This concern is based upon:

"... personal knowledge of a victim. One-third of Americans (34 percent) know someone who has been a victim of identity theft. In the Northeast, it's closer to one in four (28 percent) while in the West almost one in two people (44 percent) know an ID theft victim."

The survey results were part of a broader study of Financial Literacy about identity theft. Bankrate had engaged Gfk Roper America to conduct a random survey of American households to understand consumers understanding of identity theft. Interviewers questioned 1,006 adults -- 524 women and 482 men. The report found that consumers' worry increased with their personal knowledge of identity theft victims. Basically, people who knew ID-theft victims were more worried than people who didn't.

The numbers could be much higher (or lower), due to consumers' varying definition of identity theft. According to Avivah Litan, vice president and analyst at Gartner:

"Everyone has their own definition of 'identity theft... For some it means wholesale identity hijacking. For others it could mean credit card theft. So it's hard to know what the respondents were thinking; thus the results could be skewed either way."

What are consumers doing to address their ID-theft concerns? Survey respondents reported the following activities:

Participants' Response to ID-Theft (Bankrate - GfK Roper survey - North America - April 2008)	Concerned About ID-Theft	Not Concerned About ID-Theft
More likely to shred documents with sensitive personal data	82%	52%
Use a secure snail-mail mail box (at post office or a locked box at home)	63%	51%
Avoid online banking	54%	55%
Check credit reports regularly	53%	30%
Refuse to shop online	42%	47%
Requested a Security Freeze on their credit reports	23%	6%
Only pay bills online	16%	13%
Haven't made any changes to avoid identity theft	35%	19%

I find the 35% statistic in the last row astounding. These people practice the "head in the sand" approach. These are people who personally know ID-theft victims, but still refuse to do anything to avoid identity theft. Maybe they have given up, or maybe the problem seems overwhelming.

My impression: some companies probably rely upon this "head in the sand" attitude after a data breach. After a data breach, these companies rely on many ID-theft victims (e.g., employees, former employees, retirees, contractors, etc.) to "keep their heads in the sand" and not take advantage of the company's credit monitoring service offer... which is often free for a year or two. It lowers the company's post-breach costs. Companies know this, and are less likely to enact stronger data security measure when they know consumers don't do all they can to protect their sensitive personal data.

The survey results by gender:

• Women were more likely than men to shred documents
• Women were more likely than men to use a secure mailbox
• Men were more likely than women to avoid online banking
• Women were more likely than men to check their credit reports regularly
• Men were more likely than women to request a Security Freeze on their credit reports
• Men are more likely than women to practice the "head in the sand" approach

Now that you know what other consumers are (and are NOT) doing, I hope that more people will take action to avoid identity theft, and after a data breach will accept the company's credit monitoring service offer.