The representative survey carried out by the Lithuanian Consumer Institute has shown that the awareness of identity theft in Lithuania is rather low. Even 49 per cent of the respondents do not know what an identity theft means: 40 per cent responded that an identity theft is introducing oneself by a fake name and surname (i.e. using the data of a non-existent person) and 9 per cent did not know in general what it means.

 

61 per cent of consumers associate an identity theft with pretending to be someone else for criminal purposes. 56 per cent of the respondents believe that an identity theft is fraud involving payment card data and an unlawful use of personal data. 38 per cent think that it is fraudulent e-mails or telephone calls requesting computer access and phishing out logon data and personal data. 36 per cent – hacking into personal social network accounts or e-mails.

 

 

The survey results show that 19 per cent of the country’s residents have encountered identity theft over the last 12 months: 3 per cent experienced it personally and 16 per cent heard about such cases from their friends and family or relatives. Most often in the case of identity thefts, fast credits were taken (28 per cent), goods or services were bought using another person’s name (16 per cent), money disappeared from bank accounts (8 per cent).

 

The victims who took part in the survey stated that identity thefts most often took place after stealing personal documents (28 per cent) or by obtaining personal data by deceit (24 per cent). In one third of all cases (32 per cent), the thieves did not manage to use the personal data obtained.

 

 

Almost one-third of the Lithuanian population (28 per cent) is not aware of any single method how ID can be stolen on the electronic space. In general, awareness of ID theft methods online is higher among the survey participants who are between 18 and 35 years of age and among people with the highest educational background. Most widely known identity theft methods online: phishing – 44 per cent, data skimming – 42 per cent and spyware/malware – 40 per cent.

 

8 per cent of the respondents were not aware of any online ID theft methods. Most widely known identity fraud methods in the non-electronic space: obtaining personal data by deceit (74 per cent), disclosure of logon codes and passwords (68 per cent), theft of personal documents and correspondence (66 per cent).