Identity theft is rampant. Javelin's 2020 Identity Fraud Survey found that one in every 20 Americans was affected by identity fraud. Total losses in 2019 were $17 billion, proving a real need for consumer protection.

How Many Cases of Identity Theft Were There in 2020?

Sadly, the pandemic did not decrease the amount of identity theft in 2020. The incidents increased substantially. Based on the trends, it's too soon to tell if the increase is purely due to increased data breaches at big companies leaking data, some other factor, or how the pandemic might have affected overall numbers.

According to a Federal Trade Commission (FTC) report, the total number of cases in the United States in 2018 was 444,344. In 2019 that number almost doubled to 650,523 cases. For 2020, the total number of identity theft cases was 1,387,615, according to the FTC.

What Is the Leading Form of Identity Theft in the US?

Identify fraud comes in several forms. Most broadly, the FTC places identity theft into four categories – tax-related identity theft, medical identity theft, child identity theft, and other types of financial/Social Security Number [SSN] theft or fraud.

The “other” or miscellaneous types of identity theft is the largest category. It includes opening new credit card accounts in someone else's name and account takeover fraud.

The FTC's Consumer Sentinel Network breaks down the various types of identity fraud into percentages. Identity theft by claiming another person's government benefits is the largest category with 32%. Credit card fraud that involves opening new accounts in someone else's name is next with 29.7% of cases. Miscellaneous identity theft is next with 22.9%. After that, business identity theft is next at 8.1%, and tax fraud such as claiming another person's tax refund through identity theft is last with 7.3%.

What State Has the Highest Per Capita Rate of Identity Theft?

The complete data for 2020 identity theft cases was unavailable as of this writing. Of the 2019 cases, the FTC identified Georgia as the state with the highest number of per-capita identity theft cases, with 427 cases for every 100,000 Georgia residents or 44,888 cases. Georgia was followed by Florida, California, Texas, Nevada, Louisiana, Delaware, the District of Columbia, South Carolina, and Maryland rounding out the top ten states with the highest level of identity theft cases per capita.

According to the same FTC research, South Dakota has the lowest per capita rate for identity theft cases. After South Dakota, the next lowest number of incidents by state are Vermont, Wyoming, North Dakota, West Virginia, Maine, Iowa, Montana, Kentucky, and Nebraska.

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