Identity crisis is exploding

A stranger takes over someone’s life about once every two seconds.

And 1 in 3 of us now already has undesired personal experience with that upsetting fact, according to a new research report.

Even worse, that number is certain to grow dramatically this year.

Identity theft was a booming criminal enterprise even before the massive data breach over the holidays at Target and other retailers.

“Last year, some 13.1 million consumers suffered identity fraud ... contributing to the nearrecord number of ... victims,” Javelin Strategy & Research’s 2014 Identity Fraud Report said.

But wait, it gets worse. Those numbers don’t include the more than 110 million victims of the holiday breach, which, as it ripples through the population, will send the figures up like a rocket.

As a Javelin spokeswoman explained, “Four years ago, the number of identityfraud victims was 1 in 9, and last year it was 1 in 3. We think the way it is going, and given the ... breach, that number will likely increase.”

The numbers are mindboggling. And in the immortal words of Ron Popeil: But wait, there’s more!

Losses are also dramatically increasing in online accounts such as eBay and PayPal, the report said.

Javelin CEO Jim Van Dyke and others say the greatest danger of identity theft is that consumers are unaware that they’re being swindled. Electronic accounts can be breached, Van Dyke added, and victims “don’t even know that it is occurring for months.” Most financial institutions will cover fraud losses, but only after the victim has notified the financial institution.

Financialservices experts say there is nothing a consumer can do when a company’s security has been breached (as happened at Target, for example), but there is still much the individual can do to protect oneself.

“Whenever you receive an email out of the blue asking you for a PIN or other vital personal information, never provide it,” said Bill Hardekopf, CEO of LowCards.com.

Hardekopf also said that consumers should change PINs from time to time.

“Go through your bank and creditcard statements online frequently,” Hardekopf added. “Do you see a charge, maybe a small one, that doesn’t make sense? Check it. It could be a crook who is trying to see if he can get a charge through. The next time he’ll probably try to charge a homeentertainment system against your account.”

Hardekopf points out that another place to detect fraud is in one’s credit report.

“People could be opening up new accounts under your name,” Hardekopf warns. “And that could be driving down your credit rating. You’ll only know if you check your rating on a regular basis.”