The Federal Trade Commission today released a survey showing that 8.3 million American adults, or 3.7 percent of all American adults, were victims of identity theft in 2005. Of the victims, 3.2 million, or 1.4 percent of all adults, experienced misuse of their existing credit card accounts; 3.3 million, or 1.5 percent, experienced misuse of non-credit card accounts; and 1.8 million victims, or 0.8 percent, found that new accounts were opened or other frauds were committed using their personal identifying information...The survey also gathered information about victims’ out-of-pocket expenses resulting from the theft of their identities. In more than half of the incidents, victims incurred no out-of-pocket expenses. Some victims, however, incurred substantial out-of-pocket expenses – 10 percent of all victims reported out-of-pocket expenses of $1,200 or more.
In addition, the survey asked victims to estimate the amount of time they spent resolving problems caused by the theft. The median time spent resolving problems by all victims was four hours. Ten percent of victims, however, spent at least 55 hours resolving their problems, and half of those spent at least 130 hours.
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