This is how common identity theft is in Texas

Grant Suneson, 24/7 Wall St. via The Center Square

Throughout 2020, law enforcement reported 4.7 million cases of fraud, identity theft, and other scams. This shattered the previous record, from 2019, by nearly 1.5 million reports. In total, Americans lost $3.3 billion to fraud last year.

Though every state reported hundreds, if not thousands, of cases of fraud, the populations of some states were much more prone to identity theft than others. A few states reported less than 100 incidents per 100,000 residents, while three states reported over 1,000 incidents per 100,000.

24/7 Wall St. reviewed data from the Federal Trade Commission’s Consumer Sentinel Network Data Book to identify the states with the most and least identity theft.

By far the most common type of identity theft in 2020 involved people fraudulently applying for government benefits.

As the federal government offered loans to businesses and additional unemployment benefits to Americans because of the pandemic, there were nearly 400,000 reports of people fraudulently applying for or receiving benefits — a nearly 3,000% increase from the previous year.

In 2020, Texas residents reported 134,788 different incidents of identity theft, or 465 incidents for every 100,000 residents — the 12th highest rate of identity theft among states.

The category of other identity theft, which can include theft of online shopping accounts, email and social media accounts, and more ranked as the most commonly reported type of identity theft in Texas, accounting for 32% of all identity theft reports.

The second most commonly reported form of identity theft was loan or lease fraud. That type was cited in 29% of all reports.

24/7 Wall St. reviewed data from the Federal Trade Commission’s Consumer Sentinel Network Data Book to identify the states with the most and least identity theft per capita. These are the states with the most identity theft.