Toll on Identity theft victims goes beyond financial loss | Betty Lin-Fisher
I have written a lot over the years about how to protect your identity to avoid becoming a victim of identity theft. But the fact of the matter is we can do everything to protect our identities and still become a victim. The toll it takes on a person’s life — not only potential financial loss but also emotionally as the victim has to spend countless hours getting their finances back in order — is huge.
A new consumer impact report from a national nonprofit which specializes in helping identity theft victims has found a startling trend: an increasing number of ID theft victims are reporting thoughts of suicide resulting from the crime.
For its 2023 Consumer Impact Report, the San Diego-based Identity Theft Resource Center said 16% of ID theft victims who contacted the organization reported thoughts of suicide.
That’s up from 10% in 2022, which was the previous all-time high for the center.
People can become victims of ID theft from their personal information, such as their Social Security number or bank account numbers being stolen in a data breach, as a result of a sophisticated scam where the victims are duped into sharing their information, or a myriad of other ways.
Victims reported feelings of shame and guilt and the loss of trust and security.
Here's what some Identity Theft Resource Center victims shared:
“I isolated myself from everyone and still do because I can’t make ends meet, can’t get help or assistance, and I feel like an idiot.”
“I am worried about being on social media, of making social media posts, or about people finding the untrue content online.”
More support is needed for all aspects of an ID theft victim
“Too often, we focus on the number attached to a statistic and focus too little on what it means,” said Eva Velasquez, president and CEO of the Identity Theft Resource Center, in a press release about the report.
“The fact that 16% of identity crime victims thought it’s easier to end their life than try to recover from an identity crime says as much about the lack of concern and support for identity crime victims as it does the victims themselves. We need to fundamentally change the way we support identity crime victims to ensure no one feels ignored or dismissed the way they do today.”
Velasquez and I have spoken often about the subject of ID theft and how to avoid it. Last month, we spoke about the importance of protecting your email password because when you get locked out of your email, it could be the keys to so much important information and a way for hackers to reset your passwords on other accounts.
Last year, we talked about the dangers of cyber attacks and social engineering, which is a term for working on people by watching their social media posts or other methods to gain your trust and tricking you into giving your information to them instead of them stealing it.
In her CEO letter for the report, which was released last week, Velasquez said she’s penned many report introductions for the last 10 years “to highlight the broad range of impacts of identity crimes on people. Normally, at this point, I’d go into a review of a number of statistics that show how identity criminals continue to find ways to take advantage of people and their personal information. Not this year.”
Velasquez said the number of ID crime victims who say they have considered suicide has steadily been increasing after nearly two decades in the 2% to 4% range. But in 2020, during the pandemic, the ID Theft Center saw the number of suicidal victims jump to 8% and 10% in 2021. To put it in perspective, Velasquez said, the overall suicide rate in the general population also grew through the pandemic to about 5%, including 3% in 2022. (The ID Theft Center report reflects responses from victims who contacted the organization in 2022 and also an online survey of more than 1,000 general consumers, some of whom self-identified as being victims of ID theft in the previous 12 months.)
The report was supported by Experian, one of the three national credit reporting agencies.
“Technology can be our friend and foe when it comes to identity theft,” said Mike Bruemmer, vice president of global data breach resolution for Experian. “Scammers are relentless and their success can be devastating.”
The fact that the number of ID theft victims considering self harm increased during the pandemic was no surprise, Velasquez said, “but the fact the rate has continued to climb is. And, the trend begs the question - why?
“We don’t have a great deal of independent information to guide us to a definitive answer, but we can hazard some educated guesses based on our research and our daily contact with victims every day for more than 20 years,” she wrote in the report.
That includes:
The rise of sophisticated social engineering scams. Phishing, business email compromise, social media account takeover, to name a few, is a likely contributor to the stress of victims.
“Once laughably bad spoofed websites, texts and emails are now letter perfect and have been joined by highly sophisticated voice mail and direct contact attacks," she said. "This is before we’ve seen generative AI (artificial intelligence) deployed at scale which will also make it more difficult to spot phishing and other social engineering attacks.”
An increase in very large dollar losses due to social engineering in various identity scams. For the first time, the organization said they are consistently seeing six-figure losses in romance and social media scams, often involving crypto currency or other investment schemes.
“Everyone is vulnerable under the right set of circumstances, yet the discussion around identity crime victimization is either dismissive, judgmental or both,” she said. “The language used when talking with victims and when talking about victims, particularly by the media and many cyber experts, can create more shame and embarrassment. From comments like ‘what’s the big deal, it’s not as bad as violent crime” to statements about victims being 'duped' or 'falling for…' creates an environment where victims feel at fault or invalidated.
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“There are still far too few resources to assist far too many identity crime victims,” Velasquez said. “Too many victims are shunned by organizations that should support them and ignored by government agencies that are too short-staffed or ill-equipped to help them.”
Consumers and victims of identity crimes and compromises can get free support and guidance from the ID Theft Resource Center at 888-400-5530 or by visiting www.idtheftcenter.org or via live chat. If you have thoughts of self-harm or suicide, you can call or text the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 988 or chat at https:/988lifeline.org for crisis support.
How to protect yourself from identity theft
Here are some ways to protect you and your family from the Identity Theft Resource Center:
Only keep necessary cards and documents with you or in your car. Store them somewhere secure, like a safe or lockbox, when you don’t need them.
Use a cross-cut shredder to dispose of documents with personally identifiable information.
Consider using a digital wallet for all of your payment and identity cards. It is the safest way to pay, other than cash.
Lock all of your electronic devices with a passcode, passphrase or biometric lock. Also, turn off lock screen notifications.
Use a unique username and passphrase (12+ characters long) for all of your online accounts.
Make sure your browser is secure.
Do not give out your personal or financial information through social media platforms, text or email, especially when you have not verified the requestor’s authenticity.
Avoid public wi-fi unless you can use a Virtual Private Network (VPN).
Make sure your social media profiles are set to private; avoid posting anything publicly.
Review companies’ privacy policies to understand how your data will be used, stored and protected. Ask what information they have to hold and what can be deleted.
Use multi-factor authentication with an authenticator app, if possible. Text messages and phone calls with authorization codes can be spoofed.
Do not click on unexpected pop-ups in your browser or on your device. Also, don’t click on any links in unknown emails, texts or social media posts. Instead, go straight to the source when verifying an email, text or social media post.
Log out of accounts when you are finished using them. Log out both online and on your cellphone so no one can get easy access if they get your device.
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Consumer columnist Betty Lin-Fisher can be reached at 330-996-3724 or blinfisher@thebeaconjournal.com. Follow her @blinfisherABJ on Twitter or www.facebook.com/BettyLinFisherABJ and see all her stories at www.tinyurl.com/bettylinfisher
This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: More identity theft victims reporting thoughts of suicide after crime
