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Identity fraud in the United States fell an estimated 12 percent from 2005 to 2006, which translates into fraud reduction of $6.4 billion. This was one of the surprising findings from the annual Identity Fraud Survey Report, released this month by Javelin Strategy & Research, a provider of independent, industry-specific, quantitative research. Identity fraud is defined as access to personal account information that leads to fraud. "ID fraud is dropping because consumers, financial institutions and the government are improving in their efforts to fight fraud," said James Van Dyke, president and founder of Javelin Strategy & Research, San Francisco. Several years of data now exist from which to learn about criminal patterns, and "resources are much stronger as measured by systems, staff and sophistication. More and more consumers are changing their behavior to effectively protect their personal information