Perpetrators often spend time building a good credit score with synthetic identities. The synthetic identity can be used to apply for credit cards, loans, and government benefits. Synthetic account fraud involves a combination of real and fabricated information, such as a real Social Security number and a false name. A relatively new form of identity theft, called synthetic account fraud, is one of the fastest-growing financial crimes in the nation. Identity thieves are always developing new ways to steal money. That increase was likely due to significant government benefits distributed in response to the COVID-19 pandemic but have since stopped. Notably, government documents or benefits fraud declined by 3% in 2021 after a jaw-dropping 2,920% increase from 2019 to 2020. Existing account fraud increased by 5%.Īll other categories of identity theft declined in 2021. Nearly 84,000 Americans reported new account bank fraud in 2021 compared to about 51,000 in 2020, according to the FTC.īank fraud relating to debit cards, electronic funds transfers, or ACH grew by 8% in 2021 compared to the previous year. The identity theft statistics collected by the FTC are based on reports from consumers, so it's likely that there are many cases of identity fraud that go uncounted.īank fraud cases grew 39% in 2021 compared to the previous year while "other" identity theft increased 7%.įraudsters using stolen identity information to open new bank accounts under a victim's name grew by 64% in 2021. Identity theft was the most common type of complaint lodged by consumers, and it accounted for 29.4% of all the reports received by the FTC. The Federal Trade Commission received nearly 1.7 million reports of identity theft in 2021.
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