Identity Theft Facts and Figures

This gorgeous graphic, provided by blog.kgbpeople.com should give you a reason to be worried about identity theft if you weren’t already. If you thought that the advent of services like Lifelock have reduced identity theft in the U.S. over the past several years, I advise you to think again. According to this eye-opening graphic, identity theft has been on the rise since 2003. In 2003, a “mere” 10.1 million people found themselves the victims of identity theft. That number had been steadily decreasing until 2008 rolled around, when it began to balloon again. In 2009, 11.1 million people were the victim of identity theft.

Here’s are some stats sure to rattle your bones a bit. One in ten American consumers is the victim of identity theft, and 1.6 million households have had their bank accounts/and or debit cards stolen. The average taken from each identity theft victim amounts to $4,841. And the out-of-pocket cost to recover this money? $851 to $1,378. Now, here’s a tidbit sure to surprise you. About 50% of people learn their identities are stolen three months after the day of the crime. In horrid cases, 15% of victims didn’t learn that their identities had been compromised for four or more years. Here’s a scary piece of information to chew on: 70% of Americans have trouble removing negative information stemming from the theft of their credit reports.

The following stats also caught me by surprise:
–25.9 million Americans carry identity theft insurance (I thought it was less, and I also now wonder how many of them also pay companies like Lifelock to protect them).
–43% of people who have their identity stolen know the person who stole it. I find that stat rather telling.

Grading Scorecard

Design: A

The top portion of the graphic has a sort of “Andy Warhol thing” going on which I found appealing. A brown, light blue, aqua color scheme permeates through the graphic and gives it a unique, artsy feel.

Content: A-

There is no shortage of facts here, and to be more precise, there is no shortage of disturbing facts. If the purpose of this graphic is to make you worry a little about identity theft, I would say the graphic accomplishes that feat rather well. Overall, a superb graphic. In some ways, this graphic actually serves a public service. The makers deserve high praise for the time and effort spent to create this graphic.

Infographic Facts about Struggling Countries around the World

This dazzling infographic (from a design standpoint, certainly not from a content standpoint as its more depressing than it is dazzling) displays stats about the most struggling countries across the planet, and rather morbid ones.

Among the disturbing stats is the fact that there is a 1 in 6 chance someone around the world will die due to lack of water. This one is extremely disheartening as well: only 4% of the world’s oceanic water has NOT been damaged by human activity in some way. The population of the world living in severly “water-stressed” environments is 2/5. The ratio of Harvard University’s annual budget is equal to the entire GDP of Rwanda.

But there are some encouraging stats as well, such as the fact that a 4rth grade class raised 35,000 to free the slaves in Sudan last year (they free them by buying them and then setting them free immediatley upon purchase). The total World Bank aid to African nations exceeded 2 billion 1986. (Not sure why that stat is over 20 years old, but that’s more of  a topic for the grading segment). Speaking of which…time for the grading segment.

Design: A-

Thes design is very well done.  They didn’t just plop a bunch of stock graphics down on the page and call it a day. Everything seems to be drawn from scratch, which won them many points.

Content: B+

Some interesting stats, especially at the bottom when it gets into pie charts and the like. But I wasn’t knocked out of my boots.

Overall, a fairly strong graphic.

Graphic provided by Vision Service Adventures.

History of Japanese Bloodtyping Infographic

When this was submitted by a reader I wasn’t sure what to think. I had never  heard of bloodtyping. Blood types? Yes.

Leave it to the Japanese to come up with something as weird and commercial as this. If you want to know more about bloodtyping, take a gander over here. The basic idea is that your blood type dictates many things about you: your personality, your likes, your strengths and weaknesses and so on. Whether you believe this is true or not (I, personally do not. It sound like astrology and horoscoping to me which I also believe is a fantasy.) is not the point. How does this serve its audience as an infographic?

The red color was an obvious and good choice, the color of blood, of course. But the designer chose the better path, rather than dominating the image with red and splatters to resemble a horror poster, they have chosen a very clinical approach that works quite well. The non-descript people with their red accessories is well placed in this infographic. The graphics all match in terms of their design and the hint of the japanese culture with the blossoms at the top and throughout the infographic really gives it a nice touch.

The blue color contrasts nicely with the red color and the use of white text really hits home the clinical feel I mentioned earlier. Each section is easily identified, the content is presented cleanly with obvious breaks and the typeface has its own personality yet isn’t distracting for the reader. A good choice of color, design elements and shapes makes this infographic worth the blood, sweat and tears.

Infographics Scorecard

Design: B
Clean, fun graphics with excellent color choices.

Content: B
Fascinating insight and interesting stats about a new fad. The Japanese are always doing something interesting and weird. ;-)

Howard Hughes – Infographic or Timeline?

More and more it seems the infographic is being watered-down (some would say dumbed-down) until it is little more than a few simple pictures with some insipid facts or boring stats that no one would ever care about unless they had to write a report for their high school class.

Case in point. This infographic would be great as a start for research on the life and times of the eccentric and wealthy Howard Hughes. It IS a timeline of the life of Howard Hughes, but does that make it an infographic? I’m not making a judgment here, just asking the question. What should an infographic provide? Graphics and information, of course, but is their a degree of difficulty involved or some level of graphic prowess that is also needed? Or is it all a matter of relativity. If you think it’s an infographic and a timeline or possibly neither or something else altogether (a cheap marketing ploy), doesn’t that make it your choice and your perspective?

Well, whatever you decide, it is an interesting topic and if you did want to know more about Mr. Howard Hughes, take 60 seconds and skim though this infographic or timeline or whatever you would like to call it. Jane Russell certainly looks nice. ;-)

click image for full size infographic

by GDS Digital

Serial Killer Infographic – Prolific Murderers

This infographic is mildly disturbing, yet visceral in its presentation. Dark background, vibrant red and stark contrasts all work together to convey a message that is obvious even before reading the content. That is what makes an infographic good – an understanding of the concept just through the visualization of the data.

Sadly, I had never heard of any of these serial killers before seeing this infographics, yet many “well-known murderers” have achieved more notoriety without such prolific killing numbers and statistics. It makes you wonder how these serial killers avoided the spotlight for so long.

submitted by @igotdamaged. For some humor check out the Roadkill Carpet

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