Identity Fraud Trends and Patterns: Building a Data-Based Foundation for Proactive Enforcement (PDF; 432 KB)
Source: Center for Identity Management and Information Protection, Utica College

The data analysis showed more diversity among the age, race, gender, and criminal backgrounds of offenders than the picture held by conventional wisdom.

• Most of the offenders – 42.5% — were between 25 and 34 years of age at the time that the case was opened.
  • The 35 – 49 age group made up 33% of the offenders.
  • 18.5% were between 18 and 24 years old.
  • The remaining 6% were 50 years old or older.
• 53.8% of the offenders were black; 38.3% were white.
• One third of the offenders were female.
  • Of the females, almost two thirds were black.
• 24.1% of the offenders were born outside of the United States.
• 71% of the offenders had no arrest history.
  o Of those who did, a third were for fraud, forgery, or identity theft or fraud.

• The most prevalent motive of the offenders was personal gain. It took several forms including using fraudulently obtained personal identifying information to:
  • Obtain and use credit
  • Procure cash
  • Conceal actual identity
  • Apply for loans to purchase motor vehicles

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See also: Establishing a National Research Agenda on Identity Management and Information Protection: Report of the CIMIP Identity Management Research Workshop (PDF; 151 KB)

This entry was posted on Monday, October 22nd, 2007 at 1:03 pm and is filed under Consumer issues, Crime, Privacy. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.