I’ve got some good news, and I’ve got some bad news.  Unfortunately, it’s all wrapped up in the same troubling reminder that identity theft continues to be a multi-billion-dollar industry in America.

According to a new report from Javelin Strategy & Research, the number of identity-fraud victims decreased 28 percent in 2010, when compared with to 2009.  Unfortunately, the amount of loss suffered by the identity-theft victims increased 63 percent over the previous year.  That means, while there were fewer victims, those who did get hit lost more in the way of stolen assets and costs paid to clear their names.

Debit-card fraud is also on the rise, as compared to credit cards, according to the report.  This is a troubling trend in that consumers stand to lose more in debit card theft than they do with the theft of credit cards.

As Internet scams go, phishing has become perhaps the most pervasive form and, in many cases, one of the most elaborate.

Phishing is an attempt through email or pop-ups to learn individual personal or financial data for fraudulent purposes. Customers of banks and financial institutions are most often the targets of the scam, with the thieves sending them links to authentic-looking sites at which they are asked to input personal financial information, such as account numbers, user IDs, personal identification numbers (PINs) or Social Security numbers. The phishers then use this information to empty bank accounts or to create phony bank or credit card accounts. Read more...