Virtually every trend line for identity theft is bad news, a research analyst said today as she released a survey showing that 15 million Americans were victimized during a recent 12-month span. For the year-long period that ended last August, 15 million people were burned by some kind of fraud related to identity theft, said Avivah Litan, a Gartner Inc. analyst. The average identity theft fraud loss more than doubled in 2006 to $3,257 from $1,408 the year before, while the percentage of recovered funds dropped to 61% in 2006 from 87% in 2005. The average loss on new-account fraud — where criminals use the data they’ve stolen to open new credit card or bank accounts — was $5,962 in 2006, a jump of 223% over 2005’s $2,678. And unauthorized charges to credit cards leaped nearly fourfold, to an average last year of $2,550.