I cannot believe it has been a week since I last wrote on this blog. However, I have some exciting news - our next release is almost ready to go live and there are some exciting changes afoot. When the release is live, I will tell you all about it, but for now, let's just say that SmartSwipe has learned a new language.

Those of you who follow this spot know that I am a big fan of Phonebusters - Canada's Anti-Fraud Call Centre. Frankly, I love any organization whose major mandate is to protect consumers. Phonebusters exists to raise awareness of and to protect people from fraud.

Phonebusters recently released their identity fraud statistics from May, 2009. Unfortunately, more cases of identity fraud were reported in May than in April. Perhaps this is a seasonal variance, or perhaps the economy is forcing more people towards illicit activities. Or, perhaps more people are aware of Phonebusters than ever before?

As always, there is a caveat to these numbers. The numbers are not complete - these statistics only refer to phone calls made directly to Phonebusters. As I mentioned in last month's article, reports suggest that less than half of all cases of identity theft are reported to Phonebusters.

With that aside, let's look at some raw numbers. In May 2009, 1,072 people reported being victims of identity theft.  These people were defrauded out of $635,706.98. So far in 2009, 5,472 people have lost $4,310,508.62 to identity theft.

In April, only 758 people reported being victims of identity theft, however, these people reported that they lost $671,662.02. There were more victims in May than in April, but the total amount lost was much less. So, there is good news and bad news. The bad news is that more people were victimized, but the good news is that the bad guys did not manage to steal as much as they did in April.

Why do you think this is?