After the latest newsworthy security breach of over 64,000 Ohio State Employees Identity Information, Ohio has chosen to go with Debix, a leading identity theft prevention service, in order to provide credit and proactive fraud alert based monitoring for all of their employees. We think this is an astute move, considering that traditional credit monitoring as offered by the big three credit bureaus is becoming less effective in deterring hardened identity theft criminals.

This MSNBC video takes the viewer on a walk through online chat rooms where credit information is traded in exchange for cash. With a bank authorized credit card and stopwatch in hand, the reporter times how long it takes for identity thieves to use credit card information released into the “the wild”. The results are astonishing as the credit card is maxed out in a few minutes with illegal purchases pouring in from all around the world.

• 10 million Americans will be a victim of identity theft this year.
• 26 Times More Likely To Be A Victim Of ID Theft Than A Violent Crime
• 1,826 Times More Likely Than To Be Murdered
• 21 Times More Likely Than To Have Your Home Burglarized
• 2 Times More Likely Than Being In an Auto Accident
• 13 Times More Likely Than Being Divorced
• 19 percent of consumers report that financial information, including a bank or credit card number, has been misused.
• 14 percent say they’ve had personal information such as a Social Security number or birth certificate taken.
• Identity theft prime targets are college graduates, those with annual household income of $75,000 or more, people residing in the West, and Americans between the age of 30 and 49.
• Identity theft hits 1 in 4 U.S. households
• Loss to businesses in the U.S. exceeds $50 billion annually due to identity theft
• On average, identity theft victims spend 175 hours of their personal time and $800 to clear their names
• On average it takes victims 14-16 months to clear their name
• One in six Americans (17 percent) say they’ve had financial information stolen (bank or credit card number)
• Three in four consumers (75 percent) agree that they would take more steps to avoid being a victim of identity theft if they knew what to do.
• Four in ten consumers (43 percent) think it is unlikely they will be victims of identity theft.
• One in three consumer (33 percent) think there is nothing they can really do to prevent identity theft.

Source: Federal Trade Commission, The Gallop Organization poll, Consumer Sentinel and Identity Theft Data Clearinghouse