Fraud victims - less confident in the businesses where their data was compromised

Data from the National Consumers League and US research company Javelin Strategy and Research show that consumers are less confident in businesses’ ability to protect their identities and want more government action on fraud prevention measures.

According to Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan, the latest data breaches have served as a wake-up call signaling that government and the private sector need to take serious, meaningful action to curb this growing threat to financial security.

Research examines the impact of data breaches and identity fraud on consumer victims in four key regions nationwide, including the Chicago metropolitan area. Results indicate that Americans are urgently calling out for government action on the growing threat posed by data breach and identity theft. The impact of data breaches on consumers is severe: 61% of data breach victims who also experienced identity theft reported that the breached information was used to commit the fraud against them. Furthermore, almost half of all fraud victims (50%) do not know where the information used to defraud them was compromised.

The survey also mentions that in Chicago, 43% of fraud victims said their data were used to make online purchases and 28% said their information was used to make purchases in person. Among fraud victims in Chicago, 72% had previously received a data breach notification, which is higher than reporting by victims in Minneapolis (66%) but is comparatively worse than in Los Angeles (82%) and Miami (80%), where the rates of data breach notification among fraud victims were significantly higher.

According to the study, the consequences of consumer fraud have a serious ripple effect: fraud victims report losing trust in the businesses where their data was compromised. For example, 59% of respondents whose data were breached at a retailer expressed “significantly decreased” trust in retailers who failed to protect their information.