Security News > 2021 > February > US govt: Number of identity theft reports doubled last year
The U.S. Federal Trade Commission said today that the number of identity theft reports has doubled during 2020 when compared to 2019, reaching a record 1.4 million reports within a single year.
"2020's biggest surge in identity theft reports to the FTC related to the nationwide dip in employment," the FTC said.
The FTC received 394,280 reports regarding government benefits fraud attempts, the vast majority of them describing unemployment benefit identity theft fraud - compared with 12,900 reports filed in 2019.
"Last year, we had 99,650 reports of fraud involving business or personal loans, compared with 43,920 reports in 2019," the FTC added.
IRS federal stimulus payments were also targeted by scammers and reported to the FTC as tax identity theft attempts, with 89,390 reports being filed last year compared to the 27,450 reports sent in 2019.
In 2020, FTC received 394,280 reports about gov't benefits fraud - overwhelmingly about identity theft involving unemployment benefits.