Cybercrime
March 27, 2024
By Dominik Hochwarth
Reading time: approx. 3 minutes
More than one in ten people have fallen victim to identity theft. The data often ends up in internet databases and is used for further illegal activities.
Photo: PantherMedia / Sergiy Tryapitsyn
The Internet offers countless opportunities for communication, learning and entertainment, but it also poses risks, one of which is particularly troubling: identity theft. Personal information is stolen from unsuspecting internet users every day, often without their knowledge until the damage has already been done. In Germany, this phenomenon is reaching alarming proportions: more than one in ten adults have already become victims of this digital crime. This emerges from a representative survey by the opinion research institute YouGov on behalf of the Safe Trade Initiative (ISH).
How does identity theft work?
Online identity theft is a complex and multifaceted form of fraud that aims to obtain a person’s personal information without their consent and misuse it for illegal purposes. Fraudsters use a variety of methods to obtain valuable information, from phishing emails and fake websites to sophisticated hacker attacks. Once the personal data has been captured, a wide range of possible fraud activities opens up for criminals.
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A particularly perfidious example of identity theft is the misuse of data to set up user accounts on online services. Fraudsters pose as someone else using stolen names, dates of birth, addresses and credit card or account numbers. They use this information to gain the trust of service providers and make purchases or conclude contracts at third-party expense. Victims often only realize too late that their identity has been misused – usually when unexpected transfers are debited from their account or invoices are received for services and products that they never used.
Current figures from Germany
The opinion research institute YouGov presented current figures on identity theft on the Internet in Berlin on Wednesday. The representative survey shows that 11% of adults in Germany have already fallen victim to data thieves who have stolen their identity. And almost one in five respondents (19%) knows someone whose data has already been stolen.
5% of those surveyed were victims themselves and also know someone who was also robbed. A total of 2,058 people were interviewed in the online survey at the beginning of March. According to the opinion research institute, the results were weighted and are representative of the German population aged 18 and over.
Current scam: the housing market
We have already mentioned some of the cybercriminals’ scams, but another approach that has been increasingly seen recently is taking advantage of the tense situation in the housing market. Apartment seekers are lured with fake advertisements and tricked into a post-identification process, which is supposedly part of the application process for viewing an apartment.
These procedures require detailed personal information, which fraudsters then use to open bank accounts in the victims’ names. These accounts are then used for criminal purposes such as money laundering. Victims often only become aware that their data has been misused when legal problems or unexpected claims arise.
The young are more carefree than the old
“Although the danger is increasing, many people are obviously still taking the issue lightly,” explained a representative of the Safe Action Initiative. She pointed out that young people in particular show a certain level of negligence. According to the survey results, a third of 18- to 24-year-olds use the same password for multiple online accounts, while on average only around 20% of all respondents do so. Additionally, 16% of young adults admitted that they have ever shared a copy of their ID card online with someone they do not know personally – a behavior only observed in 11% of all respondents.
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In comparison, older respondents are more cautious: 70% of those over 55 years old check their bank statements regularly, compared to only 39% of those aged 18 to 24.
The Safe Action Initiative is a cooperation between the state and federal police crime prevention agencies (ProPK), the German Forum for Crime Prevention Foundation (DFK), Deutschland Sicher im Netz e. V. (DsiN), RISK IDENT and the classifieds platform. It was launched in 2023 to respond to these issues. (dpa/hoc)
