A bit over four percent of the U.S. population was a victim of identity fraud last year. That means that 9.3 million of you experienced the costs, both the monetary and emotional consequences of this crime. And don’t doubt for a minute, identity fraud is a crime.

Three-fourths of the victims are uncertain of the “who” or “how” of the crime. Unfortunately, the longer it takes to detect identity fraud the higher the cost to the victim. Meanwhile, those victims that have determined the ‘who’ involved, have found identity fraud to be a very personal crime. As difficult as it may be to hear, family and friends are high on the list of identity fraud perpetrators. Sadly, when the thief is a family member or a friend, records show that they most often open new credit accounts, detection of the crime takes longer and the costs to the victims are higher, averaging $12,646 per incident.

So what about the “how” of identity fraud? Much attention recently has focused on the online aspect, yet a recent study sponsored by the Better Business Bureau warns us not to neglect “the old fashion ways”. Lost or stolen wallets and theft of paper mail were cited for almost 36 percent within known methods of fraudulently obtaining personal information.

The research also suggested that this is one problem that won’t go away if you ignore it. Of those reporting an incident of identity fraud most demonstrated prevention behaviors below average prior to the theft. In addition, post theft, these same folks responded by increasing their prevention behaviors, suggesting that minor adjustments in how we deal with the security of our personal information can make an impact.

Some recommendations from the BBB study you have heard from us before, but here they are again, along with some new ideas as well.

• Retrieve paper mail promptly from your mailbox and when sending mail with sensitive information (including name, address, date of birth, social security number, account numbers of any kind, etc.), make use of a secure outgoing mailbox.
• Shred documents containing sensitive information before discarding.
• Avoid carrying unnecessary information in your wallet or purse, such as account PIN-numbers, passwords, Social Security number or card.
• Store sensitive information in a secure location, away from where others including family members, friends, neighbors, domestic help or repairmen could possibly access it. Such items would be bank statements, passwords, PIN-numbers, paper checks, social security cards or numbers, as well as, your wallet or purse.
• Cancel your paper bills or statements whenever possible and pay bills and check your statements on line. (This is even true for your paper statement from Credit Advisors. If you have access to an email address, your CAF statement can be sent to you, while any client can access their own account on our secure member’s website. As always don’t forget, ignore Internet links when responding to emails from financial institutions and type the known address instead).