Identity fraud on the rise in Sweden

The number of ID thefts continues to grow in Sweden, fresh figures from the Swedish police and credit monitoring company UC show.

In 2015, the recorded identity frauds in Sweden represented 5.5 billion Swedish krona (680 million U.S. dollars) while the average amount for ID thefts is now 65,000 Swedish krona, a record-high figure.

"The average amount has grown by 15 percent compared to 2014 and the total amount has risen by 49 percent compared to the previous year," UC business area manager Siri Bengtsson told Swedish Television.

Last year alone, around 85,000 Swedes became victims of fraud after their identities were hijacked and, according to Bengtsson, ID theft is a fast-growing crime in Sweden. It is now apparently more common than bicycle theft. The culprits usually use the victim's national insurance number to make a purchase online or to apply for loans or credit cards.

"We're buying more and more things on the Internet now and that means we're also seeing more identity thefts," said Bengtsson, adding that more and more people also ask UC to block their identities. In the past five years, the number of fraud blocks has grown by 300 percent.

In Sweden, the majority of identity-theft victims, or 60 percent, are men. Endit