NEW YORK (AP/CLARKSVILLENOW) — More than 15 million Americans were victims of ID fraud last year, a record high. An annual survey by Javelin Strategy & Research says fraudsters stole about $16 billion.
The theft of personal information can turn peoples’ lives inside out, damage their finances, eat away at their time and cause tremendous anxiety and emotional distress.
The Equifax attack was particularly damaging. Intruders made off with precisely the information needed to pose as ordinary citizens and defraud them — and did so with data for roughly 44 percent of the U.S. population.
Experts have warned for years that the widespread use of Social Security numbers, lax corporate security and even looser individual password practices could lead to an identity-theft apocalypse.
RELATED Equifax says data from 143 million Americans exposed in hack