24,000 credit fraud and € 195 million in economic losses in Italy are just some of the results of European research “MEISMINE” on identity theft ‘presented on 28 October in Brussels.

Sponsored by the European Economic and Social Committee, the research “MEISMINE-Identity Theft Observatory Model” made ​​by ADICONSUM and the Romanian Consumers Association A.N.C.P.P.S. aims to raise awareness, both at national and European level, on the phenomenon of identity theft.

Identity theft involves theft and improper use of personal data relating to the identity and / or the income of a person. It is assumed the identity of others in order to obtain economic benefits in an illegal and fraudulent manner, especially in the information technology and credit.

A real crime, in constant evolution, which manifests itself in ways every time different and unpredictable, according to Adiconsum and ANPCPPS. In 2012 in Italy were detected more than 24,000 credit frauds to economic losses that reach a total of 195 million euro. Therefore it is confirmed, compared to 2011, a significant increase in cases of fraud (+8.6%), while the economic value of the phenomenon remains almost stable.

The surveys show that Skimming, (cloning of credit cards), is the most known  identity theft by the persons who made the survey   with 77.44% of responses folllowed by the request of personal information while surfing the Internet (69.36%), and the phishing (theft of personal information through e-mails) with  55.78% .

On the contrary, the types of identity theft less known were: the theft of personal data from the mailbox known only by 13.87% of the sample, the Trasching (theft of personal data from paper material trashed) known by 14,26% and the Visching (theft of data through a phone call to the bank to which they belong) known by 14.18% of the people interviewed.

Only 9% of consumers surveyed were victims of identity theft. Of these, almost 50% reported being victim of requests for personal information while surfing the internet, 33.5% was the victim of Skimming, while 30.5% said they had suffered identity theft through contacts by phone. With the identity theft can be achieved, in addition to economic damage, both pecuniary damage / psychological and considerable expenditure of time and energy to solve all the problems generated by the fraud suffered.

The research presented in this report, offers the opportunity to reflect on this increasing phenomenon that should not be underestimated.