The Federal Trade Commission released a survey this week showing that 27.3 million Americans have been victims of identity theft in the last five years, including 9.9 million people in the last year alone. According to the survey, last year’s identity theft losses to businesses and financial institutions totaled nearly $48 billion and consumer victims reported $5 billion in out-of-pocket expenses. The agency also released a Commission report detailing its ID theft program since its inception.

"For several years we have been seeing anecdotal evidence that identity theft is a significant problem that is on the rise. Now we know," said Howard Beales, Director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection. "It is affecting millions of consumers and costing billions of dollars. This information can serve to galvanize federal, state, and local law enforcers, the business community, and consumers to work together to combat this menace."

The survey reports that 51 percent of the victims - about 5 million victims - say they know how their personal information was obtained. Nearly one-quarter of all victims - roughly 2.5 million people in the last year - said their information was lost or stolen, including lost or stolen credit cards, checkbooks or social security cards. Stolen mail was the source of information for identity thieves in 4 percent of all victims - 400,000 in the last year.

The FTC is the nation’s consumer protection agency. Since 1998, the FTC has had an Identity Theft Program to assist identity theft victims and provide guidance on how to resolve the problems, provide law enforcement training, maintain a nationwide database of ID theft complaints available to law enforcement and refer complaints to criminal law enforcement agencies, and provide business and consumer education. The FTC also maintains the nation’s primary identity theft Web site, which provides critical resources for consumers, businesses, and law enforcers.

http://www.consumer.gov/idtheft