The Identity Crimewave

Mike Riggs wonders why most people don’t report identity theft to the police:

Property and violent crime affect us where we live and work, and we expect local government to do something about them. But even though these categories seem comprehensive, neither one includes identity theft. Considering identity theft now costs Americans nearly twice as much as property crime, that’s an odd omission. In a recent report, the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics found that total losses attributed to identity theft in 2012 were $24.6 billion, compared to $13.9 billion for property crimes. Not only is the total loss amount higher for identity theft, the mean and median loss per incident is roughly double (see the chart at right).

This isn’t to say we don’t talk enough about identity crime, because we actually talk about it a lot (mostly as it relates to personal finance and online security). But the BJS report suggests even identity theft victims don’t actually think about identity theft when they think about crime where they live. The biggest indicator? Only 9 percent of identity theft victims even contact the police.

A commenter provides a sensible explanation:

Reasons people report property crime include insurance and an overall perception that the police might catch the burglar/thieve who was physically present on the property.

Identity theft is often committed by people operating from overseas or using elaborate IT resources to conceal their own identity and location, making it very difficult to trace, let alone apprehend, especially if no major money trail was left. Even a dedicated local police office, well staffed and set on the right priorities, couldn’t do much to go after, say, a Russia-based online gang group that used the credit car info to attempt a purchase on a website from Singapore…