Alarming Identity Theft Statistics & Facts for 2024

According to a 2018 survey conducted in six countries (Australia, France, Germany, Italy, the UK, and the US), the share of Americans who have fallen victim to identity theft (33%) is more than twice the average for these six countries (15%). Identity theft statistics worldwide put the US in the lead, with the UK in second (17%), Australia in third (13%), and France in fourth place (10%). The remaining two countries are in the single digits — Germany at 9% and Italy at 8%.

(Proofpoint)

The number includes 15 million victims of traditional identity fraud, who suffered combined losses of $24 billion. Additionally, identity theft statistics for 2021 point to another 27 million victims of identity fraud scams, whose financial losses totaled $28 billion. Despite a 92.3% year-over-year increase in traditional identity fraud losses from $13 billion, the total monetary losses identity fraud victims suffered ($52 billion) were 7.1% down from $56 billion in 2020.

(Javelin Strategy & Research)

With 42 million people affected and combined losses totaling $52 billion, an average US identity theft victim suffered $1,238 in financial losses. Of course, the actual losses vary based on the victim and the type of fraud, with businesses being hit the hardest. According to identity theft statistics from a 2022 IBM survey, the average global cost of a single data breach amounts to $4.35 million. The cost is much higher in the US, where it currently stands at $9.44 million.

(Javelin Strategy & Research, IBM)

This number translates to nearly 8.5% of the country’s population. Stats on identity theft reveal that 44% of the victims saw unauthorized money withdrawals from their bank accounts, while 28% had their bank info or credit card stolen and used. Additionally, 23% of the victims had new bank accounts opened in their name, 19% had new utility accounts set up using their personal info, 5% had their phones cloned, and 4% had fraudsters take out bank loans in their name.

(PR Newswire)

With ID theft on the rise, experts saw the market’s value increasing to $11.39 billion in 2022. From there, identity theft protection statistics show the global market could reach $27.9 billion by 2029, growing by more than 177% over eight years. Besides investing in technology to prevent identity fraud, businesses and individuals are also paying for identity theft insurance. In 2022, the US ID theft insurance industry was worth $262.9 million, up by 5.6% year-over-year.

(Fortune Business Insights, IBISWorld)

In 2021, Rhode Island saw 2,862 ID theft cases per 100,000 people for a total of 30,270 reports. Other states with a high number of identity theft cases per 100,000 people include Kansas (1,355), Illinois (921), Louisiana (730), Georgia (624), Nevada (594), Colorado (591), Delaware (563), New York (561), and Florida (522). Meanwhile, the three states with the lowest identity theft rates are Wyoming (107 per 100,000 people), Montana (106), and South Dakota (77).

(Federal Trade Commission)

An in-depth analysis of 2018 identity theft reports found that White Americans account for 71.4% of all victims. Meanwhile, Hispanics account for 11.7%, Black Americans for 9.1%, Asian Americans for 5.1%, and all other ethnicities for 2.6%. Identity theft data also shows differences in terms of household income. Namely, those with $75,000 or more a year make up 50.9% of victims, compared to just 12.3% of Americans from low-income households (less than $25,000).

(Bureau of Justice Statistics)

ID theft statistics from the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) reveal that people in this age group submitted 308,910 ID theft reports in 2021. This puts them ahead of those in the 40–49 age group (266,269 reports) and the 50–59 bracket (206,514). These three groups are most likely to be targeted by fraudsters because they have relatively secure jobs and higher incomes. They also use their personal details more often than others, thus making them more vulnerable.

(Federal Trade Commission)

The US is facing a spike in child identity theft, statistics reveal. According to research, 1 out of 50 US children were victims of identity theft in 2021, while 1 out of 45 had their data exposed in data breaches. Overall, child identity theft cost families a combined total of $918 million in 2021. An average family lost $737 due to child identity theft and needed 13 hours to resolve each incident. Interestingly, in 73% of the cases, the perpetrator was someone close to the family.

(PYMNTS)

A study by Kaspersky found that the share of account takeovers — when fraudsters take control of their victims’ bank accounts — rose 20 percentage points from 34% in pre-pandemic 2019. The second most common form of financial ID theft was the creation of new bank accounts in victims’ names (14%). And while 12% of criminals used legitimate tools (i.e., remote access software) to commit fraud, 4% infected their targets’ devices with malware to access their data.

(Kaspersky)

In 2021, government benefits fraud led the identity theft numbers with 395,948 reports. This was a 2.8% decrease from 407,512 reports filed in 2020 and marked the second consecutive year this was the most common type of identity theft. In 2019, a year before the global pandemic, Americans reported just 23,242 cases of government documents and benefits fraud. As such, this type of identity theft saw an unprecedented 1,653.3% year-over-year increase in 2020.

(Federal Trade Commission)

Credit card theft statistics point to a 0.9% decrease from 393,378 reports filed in 2020. Yet despite this downtick, the number of credit card fraud cases has been steadily increasing in recent years. There were 133,107 such cases in 2017 — meaning that credit card fraud rates have gone up by 192.8% in the last four years. In 2021, most credit card fraud cases (363,092 or 93.2%) involved the creation of new credit card accounts using the victims’ information.

(Federal Trade Commission)

The number was slightly lower than the $28.65 billion recorded in 2019. Yet despite this, facts about identity theft show the US actually saw a 6.5% increase in payment card fraud losses — from $9.62 billion in 2019 to $10.24 billion in 2020. Experts predict total annual losses could reach $49.32 billion by 2030, costing the global industry $408.5 billion between 2021 and 2030. Meanwhile, the US industry was expected to lose $12.16 billion to fraudulent transactions in 2022.

(Payments Dive, Insider Intelligence)

With 66.7% of Americans owning at least one credit card, they’ve become a dime a dozen for cybercriminals. It is thus no surprise that, according to statistics on identity theft, they command relatively low prices on the Dark Web. As of June 2022, stolen credit card details with a balance of up to $5,000 went for $120, while those with up to $1,000 went for $80. At the same time, online banking login credentials with a balance of at least $2,000 commanded $65 apiece.

(Privacy Affairs)

This number includes all types of data breaches, from cyberattacks to physical attacks. The year 2021 saw a massive 68% increase in the number of data breaches compared to 1,108 recorded a year earlier. However, the total number of victims was on the decline — from 310.1 million in 2020 down to 293.9 million in 2021. Overall, 83% of these incidents involved the leaking of sensitive information like social security numbers, an increase from 80% in 2020.

(Identity Theft Resource Center)

According to medical identity theft stats, the number marked a 32.3% increase over 2020, when healthcare data breaches affected 34 million people. What’s more, the number of victims of such incidents has more than tripled since 2018, when it stood at 14 million. The fact that the number of incidents went up by just 2.4% — from 663 in 2020 to 679 in 2021 — indicates that hackers have come up with methods to expose more medical records in a single data breach.

(Fierce Healthcare)

Child identity theft facts point to a 59% decrease in the number of data breaches targeting K-12 schools from the record-setting 408 incidents in 2020. Ransomware attacks accounted for 37% of the incidents in 2021, making them the most common attack type. Overall, K-12 schools across the US have reported 1,331 cybersecurity incidents since 2016. In 55% of these cases, cybercriminals targeted school district vendors (e.g., software providers) as the entry point.

(K-12 Dive)

Online identity theft statistics from a 2019 study by NowSecure reveal that 70% of the 250 most popular Android apps could potentially leak their users’ sensitive data. Users of shopping apps are most at risk, as 82% of brick-and-mortar retailers’ apps and 92% of online-only retailers’ apps leaked at least some user data. The researchers also found that 48% of finance apps, 67% of travel apps, and 69% of insurance apps didn’t adequately encrypt users’ information.

(NowSecure)

Formjacking, one of the most prevalent identity theft trends in recent years, involves the hijacking of online forms where users enter their private data. Back in 2018, Symantec found that formjacking affected more than 4,800 unique websites each month. Considering that stolen credit card details went for $45 apiece at the time, the researchers concluded that hackers needed to obtain just 10 cards per affected site to net $2.2 million per month on the Dark Web.

(Symantec)

Every year, the FTC tracks where the reported identity fraud cases had originated, i.e., how the fraudsters got into contact with the victims. In 2021, only 9% of the reported cases with known contact methods originated on social media, identity theft statistics show. Yet despite the fact that social media ranked fifth on the list of the most common contact methods, it resulted in the largest total financial losses. Meanwhile, the median dollar loss per victim amounted to $400.

(Federal Trade Commission)