Cyber crime tops Americans' worst feared crimes: Poll

Washington, Nov 7 : Cyber crime has become the most feared crime in the US, with two-thirds of American adults worrying about becoming the victims, a survey showed.

The Gallup poll showed that 67 per cent of those polled worry about having their personal, credit card or financial information stolen by computer hackers, while 66 per cent worry about having their identity stolen, Xinhua news agency reported.

The fear for cyber-related crimes significantly tower over conventional crime, as the fear of having one's car stolen or broken into, which came in third, stood at 38 per cent.

One in four of those polled said they or a member of their household has had personal information stolen by hackers in the past 12 months, while 16 per cent said they or a family member has had their identity stolen in that same time bracket, the poll found.

According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), an average 280,000 complaints each year were made against cyber crimes between 2000 and 2016.

The 2017 poll was conducted on October 5 to 11 based on telephone interviews with 1,028 adults.