Some numbers went down, but not these.

The number of identification theft cases surged in 2008, according to the Federal Trade Commission’s annual data.

In 2008, IDentity Theft was the biggest, by far,  complaint the FTC received, representing 26 percent of complaints. The next biggest complaint – third-party & creditor debt collection scams – represented only 9 percent of complaints. The FTC’s annual [1] Consumer Sentinel Network report, released Feb. 26, detailed that IDentity Theft tallies were this:  total complaints came to 313,982 in 2008, up from 259,266 in 2007.

The Consumer Sentinel Network, a secure online database, harvests complaints from law enforcement authorities, as well as other groups, like the Internet Crime Complaint Center and Better Business Bureau.

Here are the top 25 complaint categories, which often dovetail with the Internet.

Meanwhile, email is clearly the preferred means of propagating fraud.  Scam artists are most likely going to nail you via email.  Phone scams have fallen from 11 percent to 7 percent from 2007 to 2008.  A thought: As more consumers use wireless, as the primary phone, it’s harder to track down victims.

What’s also notable is the demographics.  Twenty-somethings are most likely to get hit with ID theft, though they, like everyone else thinks they are immune.  Data Breaches - don’t care who you are, the thieves take care of matching up your data with a buyer who wants to “become you”.

These numbers are only those ‘reported’.  Much more goes unreported, or reported as ‘financial fraud’, because people are unaware of the 5 major Dangers of IDentity Theft.  Though most admitted victims don’t realize it, IDentity Theft commonly has ‘legal issues’ that follow.  Find an answer to the problem [2] here.

And the states most hit by IDentity Theft:

Learn how to protect yourself and see what [3] legal help is available.