One in 10 affected by ID theft

Over 10 per cent of silicon.com readers either know or suspect they have been the victim of identity theft in their lives online, highlighting this increasingly common crime.

Results of a survey of 1,067 readers conducted in December revealed 114 - or 10.7 per cent, answering Yes to the question 'Do you believe your identity has ever been stolen online?'

ID theft commonly involves crooks finding personal data about individuals, for example from old receipts or discarded bank statements, using that to gain other personal credentials and then making transactions or buying goods in the unsuspecting person's name.

While details are by no means harvested solely online - bin raiding is a common starting point - illegal transactions are frequently facilitated by the internet.

However, 44 per cent of respondents also said they have received an email 'phishing' for personal information.

In recent months phishing scams - so called because they trawl for personal data such as bank accounts numbers, passwords, ATM PINs and more - have become common. Customers of mainstream banks have been targeted, as have users of services such as eBay and PayPal.

But while just two-thirds of survey respondents say they have been on the receiving end - the phishing emails are typically spam sent to millions of accounts - only 66 per cent said they had heard of the practice. 27.6 said they hadn't and a further 6.4 per cent said they weren't sure, before having the term explained in the silicon.com survey.

The last year has seen the UK Information Commissioner, credit rating agencies, banks and other organisations increasingly warning against the dangers of ID theft. While the survey of readers isn't scientific it goes some way to showing the possible extent of ID theft.

silicon.com's special report 'Protecting your ID' can be found here.

Tomorrow: How comfortable are you with the use of biometrics for security purposes? Are you already using biometric systems and do they make you feel safer? We will reveal what our respondents told us.