While identity thieves don’t care much about who they’re taking personal information from, a 2008 Javelin Research study cites that women are victimized 26 percent more often. It’s not because women tend to shop more than men overall, as some may suspect, but because women tend to shop less online and more in person.
How does this lead to a greater likelihood of identity theft, you may ask. It’s because brick and mortar stores have yet to catch up with online marketplaces as far as information security is concerned. While some stores still scan credit cards using manual methods, online shops are adding SSL encryption, enhanced passwords and other high-tech safeguards.
Another interesting statistic from Javelin is that women took almost twice as long as men to realize they had been victimized. This delay, which averaged 83 days, gave identity thieves more time to make fraudulent charges on their accounts. It also gave them time to leave the country to further escape detection.
So, what is a girl to do to protect herself from identity theft? Simple. Sign up for an identity theft protection service such as LifeLock, TrustedID or Identity Guard. This way you will be notified before any new accounts or credit is extended in your name and will be able to deny any fraudulent transactions.
Javelin says that 23 percent of men take advantage of email alerts of unusual activity on their accounts, while only 15 percent of women do. An even smaller percentage of women, only three percent, use text messages for a similar purpose. Such a service will let them know right away if their accounts have been compromised and hopefully shrink that 83 days down to 83 minutes. Another good idea is a credit monitoring service, which keeps a close eye on the user’s credit report. It allows the user to get notifications of new accounts, not just fraudulent charges on existing ones.
Switching not to shopping online, but instead to banking online, can also help women keep track of their accounts better, since it lets them view their balances in real time anytime instead of having to visit their financial institutions or at least make a phone call. This gives them a better idea of what their balances should be so that they can easily detect any changes a thief might make, whether that is charging a $30,000 car or a $30 leaf blower.
This doesn’t mean that men can rest easy. There are still millions of male identity theft victims each year. They need to keep an eye on their accounts too and not sit back on their laurels. After all, all the online security in the world won’t make a bit of a difference if a thief finds an intact account statement sitting outside in the recycling bin. It also won’t matter if a thief decides to look over his shoulder while he uses the ATM and nabs his PIN.
So what am I saying? Be vigilant, no matter what your gender. To an identity thief you’re just a number even if other statistics matter to the research company. The group of identity theft victims is growing larger all the time and that is one party that you don’t want to be invited to.