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Are you at risk? Test lets you know

New online survey can help consumers find out how to beef up security against identity theft.

By CATHY JETT

Date published: 3/19/2005

By CATHY JETT

Ever wonder just how secure your personal information is from identity theft?

Now there's a way to find out.

Simply log onto bbbonline.org/idtheft/safetyQuiz, and answer 11 multiple-choice questions on such things as where you store sensitive financial data and how often you monitor your current account balances.

Hint: don't pick "in an unlocked desk drawer" or "never."

Next, click on "View My Results." Up will pop your score, personalized tips on how to thwart identity theft, and an animated sketch of a shifty-eyed thief behind bars.

Don't feel bad if your score is higher than a perfect zero in a scale of zero to a hundred. Most people rack up about 38 points, according to the quiz site.

They may not be storing bank statements where no one else can access them, for example. Or they may not be checking their financial accounts online at least once a day.

Hey, you were warned.

The illuminating quiz is based on findings in the 2005 Identity Fraud Survey Report conducted by Javelin Strategy & Research, a Pleasanton, Calif.-based financial-services consulting firm. The report was modeled after a similar one the Federal Trade Commission completed in 2003.

"We wanted to do a longitudinal study, and used the same firm that did the phone interviews for the FTC," said Edward Neumann, managing director of the firm's Arlington office. "The Better Business Bureau thought this would be good for public safety and stepped up to sponsor it."

Despite the hoopla surrounding a number of recent high-profile identity theft cases--including those of socialite Paris Hilton and information brokers ChoicePoint and LexisNexis--Javelin found that the number of identity-theft cases has actually dropped slightly since the FTC study.

Its new report, which came out last month, found that 9.3 million American adults had been victims of identity fraud last year. That's 800,000 fewer than were reported in the 2003 survey.

But the costs associated with these frauds have grown. The figure was $52.6 billion last year, a 2.3 percent increase over the inflation-adjusted figure of $51.4 billion in the 2003 study.

Surprisingly, the study found that the majority of identity thieves aren't nameless hackers trying to break into company databases or Hilton's T-Mobile Sidekick II. They're people you know: family members, friends, relatives, even neighbors.

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Date published: 3/19/2005