It is important to understand that identity theft is a fast-growing crime. It is also important to know just how your identity can be stolen and how to protect against it. Try to keep as up-to-date as possible in this growing epidemic, and to know who is most likely to be a target.

2006 Statistics of Identity Theft

Each year, the Federal Trade Commission compiles a list of statistics on identity theft. A breakdown of the most important statistics to know follows:

In 2006, there were at least 246,000 cases of identity theft reported. Credit card fraud was reported as the most frequent type of theft, with 25% of all reported cases. Evenly distributed at about 16% were phone and utilities fraud, employment fraud and other such categories.

According to the statistics, electronic transfer is still the easiest way to target someone for identity theft, even though it is fairly secure. Napa, California and Madera, California were the highest ranked cities for the number of cases of identity theft.

The most abused methods of fund transfer are through credit cards (30%), wire transfers (23%) and bank account transactions (20%). The least used method of transaction and the least vulnerable for theft are cash advances and money orders.

Identity theft has a different threat online. Identity thieves will set up fake webpages, disguising them as a legitimate company's webpage. They will use it to gather email addresses of victims. This "phishing" (as it is known) is a fast spreading problem in Internet security. Most bank sites are using what is known as a Sitekey. A Sitekey is a special personalized image that appears for an accountholder who has signed up for online banking. It confirms that the browser is displaying the actual correct website- not a fake one.

People from the ages of 40 to 49 are the most targeted demographic, according to the Federal Trade Commissions collection of statistics of identity theft. Almost a quarter of all cases fall under this demographic.

These are the most important statistics to keep track of; if someone falls in the middle-aged demographic, uses the Internet frequently for business or conducts online banking on a regular basis, he or she should be especially wary, because they have been shown statistically to be the most targeted victims of identity theft.