Each new year brings new strategies taken by identity thieves and fraudsters. For example, during the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been a lot of identity theft and scamming related to federal stimulus payments as well as unemployment benefits.
To find out who is most likely to be exposed to and affected by identity theft and fraud, the financial website WalletHub compared the 50 states and the District of Columbia across 14 key metrics. The data set ranges from identity-theft complaints per capita to the average loss amount due to fraud.
Kansas was tied for first in the nation with Rhode Island and Illinois in identity theft complaints per capita. Overall, Kansas was ranked third in the nation as most vulnerable to identity theft and fraud.
In recent years, many Americans’ personal information has become compromised by big data breaches. The number of breaches in 2021 has already topped the number in 2020, and several big companies have been impacted, including Facebook, T-Mobile, and Volkswagen.