Identity theft costs triple in last three years - Denver Business Journal:

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Those 600 hours represent an averagse dollar cost ofnearl $17,000, and are up roughly 300 percent from 175 to 200 houras in 2000. The 2000 data comesw from an identity-theft studuy conducted by the California Public Interes t Research Group and Privacy Rights Clearinghousein 2000. Today'es victims spend an average ofnearly $1,5090 to fix identity-fraud problems, compared with $808 threew years ago, according to the Colorado That's an 85 percent jump. The average dollar amountf of fraud charges wasnearly $93,000, up more than 500 percent from $18,000o in 2000.
Some 85 percent of victims foundc out about the crimre because of a problem such as beingy denied credit or employment or getting a callfrom police. "Identitty theft victims are spending more time and money than ever clearing their names due to sloppy bank and creditbureau practices, so why is Congresx supporting bank demands to weakenm state authority to protect victims?" Ben municipal advocate for CoPIRG, said in a The U.S. Congress is consideringh amending the Fair Credit Reportin g Act to permanently extend 1996 limits on state authority to enact credit and privacy The U.S.
House of Representativea already enactedHR 2622, which would expan d existing limits on state authority to preempt strongerf state identity theft laws. The U.S. Senate bankintg committee passed asimilar bill. In the CoPIRG study, some 2,00o surveys were sent to identity fraud victims in 34 stateds inJune 2003, and responses were acceptedf through Sept. 1. Most responsezs came from California, Florida, Virginia, Illinois, Michigan, New York, Pennsylvaniza and Washington state.