The total amount of identity fraud dropped for the second straight year in a row, while fraudsters relied on offline channels for their attacks, according to an annual study released on Monday by market intelligence firm Javelin Strategy & Research.

The 2008 Identity Fraud Survey Report, based on interviews with more than 5,000 U.S. adults, found that the incidence of identity fraud fell 12 percent. The damages per incident increased, however, by a quarter to $691. In addition, thieves appeared to fall back to old methods of stealing identity information, using mail and telephone fraud 40 percent of the time, while online attacks only accounted for 19 percent of cases.

"The good news is the leadership role many businesses are taking in educating consumers about ID fraud risk factors is paying off," James Van Dyke, president and founder of Javelin Strategy & Research, said in a statement. "Still, fraudsters are getting creative and leveraging new techniques to commit fraud, so Americans need to be as diligent as ever in protecting their personal information."

Last year, a U.S. Federal Trade Commission report found that consumer losses from identity fraud had fallen in 2006. Yet, driven by legislation that requires the disclosure of breaches, companies and government agencies acknowledged last year that information from a record number of accounts was lost.

The survey found a generation gap in the way people responded to identity fraud, with young adults tending to purchase subscriptions to online ID monitoring services and older adults becoming more concerned with putting mail in unsecured mailboxes.

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