Identity Theft: a Major Threat to India


Bangalore: Identity theft is a crime of stealing someone’s identity in order to assess the person’s resources or to gain credit and other benefits. In such cases the victim faces terrible consequences if he/she is held accountable for the actions of the identity thief.

Research done by Credit Sudhaar suggests that in India one out of four is a victim of identity theft. Also, while the amount of monetary loss due to identity theft has remained steady, the frequency of identity theft incidents has increased by 13 percent from 2011.

One of the primary reasons for growth in identity theft has been the proliferation of the Internet. In India, the number of internet users has grown from 7 million in 2001 to over 98 million by 201112 and is expected to reach the 300 million mark by 2015. According to the Norton Cybercrime Report 2011, four out of five online adults in India were victims of identity theft in 2011.

With increased financial transactions online, which require one to share personal information such as bank and credit card account numbers, name, address, and phone numbers, it has become fairly easy to steal someone’s identity. An identity thief steals some piece of your personal information and uses it without your knowledge to commit fraud or theft.

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