"Thank you for calling. May I have your account number, please?"

Sometimes you have no choice but to give out personal or financial information over the phone. Have a question about your credit card account? Want to increase the minutes on your cell phone contract? You have to tell all to the customer service rep in the call center. But, hey, you can trust them, right? Maybe. Maybe not.

ID Analytics recently reported results from their study of 12 internal data theft incidents, eight of which led to more 1,300 fraud attempts involving bankcards, retail cards and wireless service.

Among the ID Analytics findings:
• If your information is part of an internal data theft, the chance of your info being used fraudulently goes up 2,400%.

• If your info is used fraudulently, it’s probably going to be used within 20 miles of the place it was stolen.

• Just like identities stolen from outside an organization, most identities stolen from the inside are used quickly then discarded within a two-week period. In five of the eight incidents, online purchases and services were responsible for 80% of the fraudulent activity.

When you call a customer service center, there’s nothing you can do to protect your information. Like it or not, once your data is out there, it’s completely out of your control.