As of 2004 , the largest biometric market is fingerprint with 48% of the total market share. Facial and hand recognitions are very close to one another at 12% and 11%, respectively. The projected biometric revenue by the end of 2004 will be $1.2 billion and will grow to $4.64 billion by 2008. The data are provided by International Biometric Group.

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) found a reported 86,168 instances of identity theft during 2001, and Aberdeen Group estimated more than $8.75 billion in related losses in 2002. Aberdeen Group also predicted that identity theft cases would multiply in 2003 with total economic losses to consumers, businesses, merchants, credit issuers, and the financial industry totaling $24 billion.

67% of identity theft victims, more than 6.5 million victims in the last year, report that existing credit card accounts were misused. 19% reported that checking or savings accounts were misused. The survey also found in the past 12 months that 3.23 million consumers discovered that new accounts had been opened, and other frauds such as renting an apartment or home, obtaining medical care or employment, had been committed in their name.

In what Howard Beales, director of the FTC's Bureau of Consumer Protection, calls the "definitive study at the moment," the agency's survey shows that 27.3 million Americans have been victims of identity theft in the last five years, including 9.9 million people in the last year alone.

Data from FTC indicates that victims’ information is most often misused in frauds related to credit cards (42 %), phone or utilities(20 %), and banks (13 %), as well as employment, loans, government benefits, and other criminal acts.

In a survey conducted by Yankelovich Partners, 38 % of the respondents said privacy and security concerns limit their online spending, and another 31 % said those concerns cause them to refrain from online purchases altogether. These issues of identity theft and the insecurity of Internet transaction are affecting the bottomline of online and mail order purchases.