8.4 million Americans fell victim to identity theft fraud in 2007**
ID thefts in 2007 totaled $49.3 billion dollars**
Identity theft has been the top consumer complaint to the FTC for the past five years in a row*
The average victim spends an average of 600 hours recovering from Identity Theft*
It is estimated that victims of Identity Theft lose an average of $5720 per Identity Theft incident and spend an average of $1400 repairing damage to their good name and credit record*
In 26 percent of all cases, the victim knew who had misused their personal information*
It is estimated that 9 percent of all victims reported a family member or relative as the person responsible for misusing their personal information*
39 percent of victims discovered that their identity was stolen more than seven months after it first occurred*
29 percent of identity theft complaints were a part of Generation Y (ages 18-29)*
25 percent of identity theft victim information was misused through credit card fraud*
Sources: Federal Trade Commission*
Javelin Strategy and Research**
On November 25, visit the MSN Money-NFCC "Ask a Credit Counselor" Message Board to ask an NFCC-certified counselor your questions surrounding ID Theft protection or other financial issues. Experian is also providing free year subscriptions to their credit monitoring service to the first 10,000 consumers through this MSN Money Message Board.
