The 2017 Identity Fraud Study, released by Javelin Strategy & Research, found that the overall fraud incidence rate rose 16% to affect 6.15% of U.S. consumers, in 2016. More specifically, $16 billion was stolen from 15.4 million U.S. consumers in 2016, compared with $15.3 billion and 13.1 million victims a year earlier.
In the past six years, identity thieves have stolen over $107 billion. The issue is rising year-over-year. According to a recent analysis of U.S. breaches by the Identity Theft Resource Center and CyberScout, hackers were increasingly successful at getting social security numbers in 2016, tool. It’s estimated that more than 19 million were compromised last year.
Javelin writes, “Unfortunately, risks inherent to growing connectivity combined with weak identity verification, the rise of EMV, and the circumvention of antiquated controls created an environment where fraud thrived and everyone paid the price.”