NEW YORK—In a concerning issue that credit unions will want to be aware of, a growing number of identity theft victims are having thoughts of suicide, a new report warns.
In its annual Consumer Impact Report, the Identity Theft Resource Center noted that 16% of victims seeking support from the organization in 2023 acknowledged they had contemplated suicide after having their identity compromised, a substantial increase compared to 2022, when 10% had such thoughts, TechNewsWorld said.
“We have watched that percentage grow over the years, and it has doubled in the last two years,” ITRC President and CEO Eva Velasquez told TechNewsWorld.
She noted that the suicide question has been part of the Consumer Impact Report for 20 years, and until recently, responses have hovered between 2% and 4%.
‘Stronger Reaction’
“We saw it rise to 8% in 2020 and 10% in 2021, and I thought that it was because of the pandemic, because of a ‘piling on’ effect,” Velasquez told the publication. “People were dealing with uncertainty and these tectonic shifts in their lives. When you added identity theft on top of that, people were having a stronger reaction and feeling more at a loss at how they were going to navigate this and find their way to recovering their identity.”
“But when I saw it go up to 16% in 2022 — after we were getting back to a bit more normalcy — I was stunned.”
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