WASHINGTON—The sharp rise in data breaches has made card data theft the No. 1 crime concern of Americans, Gallup reports.
A new Gallup poll addressing crime worries in the U.S. shows that 69% of Americans have this concern. Having a computer or smartphone hacked (62%) came in second.
Less than half of Americans worry at least occasionally about other crimes, ranging from 45% who worry about their home being burglarized when they are not there to 7% who worry about being assaulted by a coworker on the job.
Concerns over credit card information being stolen is greater among upper-income Americans, annual household incomes of $75,000 and above, and with consumers between the ages of 30 and 64.
Gallup attributes the rise in hacking concerns to more Americans experiencing a card compromise. Twenty-seven percent of Americans say they or another household member had information from a credit card used at a store stolen by computer hackers during the last year; 11% say they or a household member have had their computer or smartphone hacked in the last year.
The Gallup poll is based on telephone interviews conducted nationwide Oct. 12-15, 2014, with a random sample of 1,017 adults, aged 18 and older.
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