Survey Proves Americans Worry About ID Theft

Nine out of ten Americans think the government ought to take action against identity theft, a new survey by Star Systems, Inc. reveals.The survey also found that they are willing to be inconvenienced to help in the battle. Seventy-four percent of the 2,000 respondents to the survey said they would be willing to back up their identity when applying for a new account or loan by providing an identification card. More than two-thirds of respondents said they want their financial institutions to have a program in place to verify the identity of people opening bank or card accounts.

Other interesting survey findings included:

Over half (51 percent) of respondents were very concerned about identity theft, which is more than were worried about unemployment (47 percent) or corporate fraud (47.6 percent).
More than 65 percent believed it's easy to obtain a fraudulent driver's license.
More than 66 percent thought it important for financial institutions to verify identity of people opening bank accounts, and 72 percent thought it important banks verify identity for credit card account opening.
Close to 60 percent said it was important for retailers to rely on a secondary ID for verifying a credit card or signature debit card.
Only 71 percent of people said they were asked to provide a driver's license when opening an account in the last two years.Of those who responded to this survey, 5.6 percent said they had been victims themselves, which if compared to census bureau data, translates to just under 12 million people, Star Systems said.