Here are a few statistics and facts on identity theft:

• According to an FBI report, identity theft accounted for $52.6 billion in losses in 2006 and affected more than 9.91 million Americans.
• It will take an identity theft victim an average of 177 hours over the course of two years to clean up the damage, according to the FTC.
• Approximately 15 million people in the country were victimized by some sort of identity-theft related fraud in the 12 months up to the middle of 2006, a report from Gartner said.
• The average identity theft fraud loss more than doubled in 2006 to $3,257 from $1,408 the year before, while the percentage of recovered funds dropped to 61% in 2006 from 87% in 2005.
• The average loss on new-account fraud, where criminals use the data they’ve stolen to open new credit or bank accounts, was $5,962 in 2006, more than double 2005’s $2,678 total.
• A 2008 report by the FTC says of over 800,000 fraud complaints during the calendar year 2007, 32% were identity theft complaints. Of those, cardit card fraud was the most common form of ID theft at 23%, followed by phone/utilities fraud at 18%. See the full report here (PDF).

Current news headlines on identity theft and credit reports