Recover Me if You Can: Assessing Services to Victims of Identity Theft, United States, 2017-2019

This multi-phase study was conducted to discover and learn more about the services offered to victims of identity theft and to evaluate the effect of these services on those who experienced this crime. The first phase of this study focused on the effects of identity theft services on its direct victims. This was accomplished by combining available data from the Identity Theft Supplement (ITS) with survey data associated with the Identity Theft Resource Center (ITRC). The second phase of this study was conducted as multiple focus groups where qualitative data was collected to help in understanding more about identity crime victimization. The participants that attended these focus groups were organizations and individuals who provided insight on the type of interactions within these identity crime services. The third phase of this study was to examine the level of efficiency of the ITRC victim call center by performing interviews with the victims. Demographic variables include gender, race, age, ethnicity, education, marital status, and income.