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National Organization for Victim Assistance Responds to Increase in Identity Theft Victimization

In 2009, the National Organization for Victim Assistance (NOVA) launched an Identity Theft Task Force designed to address the issues of identity theft that consumers face every day. Chaired by the Honorable Chief Justice Richard Barajas, NOVA's Identity Theft Task Force is working to address critical issues of the crime and develop a set of best practices for victim advocates across the nation.

In response to the escalating incidents of victimization, the NOVA Identity Theft Task Force is launching an Identity Theft Victim Advocate Summit. Scheduled for April 27 in Columbus, Ohio, NOVA has developed a training course designed to provide crime victim advocates with the most current tools available to assist the millions of victims of this crime.

"It's a difficult conversation to have with a victim of identity theft or fraud," said Will Marling, Executive Director of NOVA. "So often we are seeing identity fraud come as a result from those individuals that are closest to us. Many of these victims relate identity theft or fraud to a violent crime - it has similar emotions and fears associated with it. We hope that as a result of our Identity Theft Victim Advocate Summit that we prepare and empower advocates to best serve the victims of this crime."

"We applaud the action that NOVA has taken to aid identity theft victims and to help curb this growing crime of identity fraud through educating advocates on the front line," said Todd Davis, Chairman and CEO of LifeLock, a leader in identity theft protection. "While NOVA's Task Force is working to develop educational outreach to support advocates that in turn support victims, I ask myself, what are other agencies doing to help consumers? If we are really all in this together, we need to see other agencies stepping up to follow NOVA's lead."

According to Javelin's 2010 report, year after year, 'friendly fraud' continues to incur the highest mean fraud amount, holding relatively steady at $11,827 in 2009. The same report continues to say that victims of 'friendly fraud' also report significantly longer detection times, at 183 days - the highest detection time out of all methods of identity theft. 'Friendly fraud' is defined as perpetrators that are known to the victim and can include family members, friends, co-workers or caregivers.

About NOVA

The National Organization for Victim Assistance (NOVA) is a private, non-profit, 501(c)(3) organization of victim and witness assistance programs and practitioners, criminal justice agencies and professionals, mental health professionals, researchers, former victims and survivors, and others committed to the recognition and implementation of victim rights and services. Founded in 1975, NOVA is the oldest national group of its kind in the worldwide victims' movement. NOVA's mission is to promote rights and services for victims or crime and crisis everywhere.

NOVA
Will Marling, Executive Director
703-535-6682
willmarling@trynova.org