A newly released report from the Department of Justice (DoJ) indicates that approximately 18 million people – or about seven percent of the U.S. adult population – were victims of identity theft last year.

The majority of the victims were those who’s accounts were hacked into and attempted misuse of an existing account was made. This, as opposed to the outright theft of personally identifiable information used to open lines of credit or siphon money out of a bank account, was reported at 16.4 million victims.

Average loss was reported to be $100. The types of losses were varied with 8.6 million consumers hit by fraudulent use of a credit card.

Age and income were variables. Senior citizens jumped 20 percent while those with incomes above $75,000 were victimized more often than those in other income brackets.

In total, the DoJ said the total financial loss owing to ID theft in 2014 was $15.4 billion, a big drop from the $24.7 billion reported in 2012.

Source: SCMagazine