Moreover, new account fraud, which involves perpetrators stealing victims' personal information and creating bank or credit accounts that they can raid for cash and abandon, dropped significantly from 2005 to 2006, from 1.52 percent of Americans to 1.05 percent. The total cost of that fraud also fell 25 percent, to $17.9 billion. And the average value of the fraud fell 30 percent, to $7,261 per victim.

Javelin's annual survey is sponsored by leading financial institutions, including Visa, Wells Fargo Bank and CheckFree Corp. But Van Dyke emphasized that neither the survey, which quizzed 5,000 people by telephone, nor its results, were influenced by the sponsors.

People making more than $150,000, while the most likely to be victimized at 7.3 percent, also tend to take the smartest measures to prevent future fraud, such as canceling paper statements and monitoring their accounts online.

"They know computers are here to stay and use them to their advantage," he said.

Young people between the ages of 18 to 24 were also at a higher risk for ID fraud, at a rate of 5.3 percent. Van Dyke attributed that mostly to carelessness. Young people were less likely to stop receiving paper statements or to shred them. And belying their Web smarts, they were much less likely to use antivirus, antispyware or firewall software.