News Insights: FTC says number of identity theft reports has doubled during 2020

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) said 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. Repeatedly, identity thieves targeted government funds earmarked to help individuals and small businesses hard hit financially by the pandemic https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/blogs/business-blog/2021/02/identity-theft-awareness-week-starts-today

News Insights:

Stephen Maloney, executive vice president and chief revenue officer at Acuant, said, “The FTC found the number of identity theft reports has doubled during 2020 when compared to 2019. This is largely due to the influx of new ways for fraudsters to game systems related to the COVID-19 pandemic. The surge to digital transactions for businesses, healthcare and governments created new targets for cyber criminals. With COVID-driven unemployment claims, criminals may be taking advantage of non-existent or outdated identity verification systems, such as knowledge based authentication or social security numbers, using real and synthetic identities to steal what could be billions of dollars’ worth of unemployment benefits. Financial elder abuse – when someone illegally or improperly uses a vulnerable senior’s money or other property – has also seen an uptick of 30-40% since the start of the pandemic. In many cases, this is the result of doctoring identity documents or using manipulated verification photos to beat an online identification process. There’s little doubt that fraudulent and criminal activities will increase as we continue to rapidly shift to digital and remote transactions. The key is utilizing forward thinking technology to stay ahead of fraudsters. This involves the ability to quickly adapt, utilizing AI for more holistic views of identities and employing solutions that are accessible to all demographics.”