According to the Identity Theft Resource Center (ITRC), the number of identity fraud incidents last year was little changed from the all-time high recorded in 2021, with Google Voice accounts being the most popular target.
The nonprofit put together its second annual report 2022 Identity Trends Report From consumer complaints received over the years.
There were 14,817 complaints, down less than 1% from the 14,947 complaints recorded in the previous year.
For more on identity theft, see 2022 nears record year for US data breaches.
More than half (55%) of the cases were related to compromised credentials, and 40% were related to misuse of credentials. In fact, 80% of identity breaches last year involved the use of stolen credentials as part of a fraud, up from 77% the year before.
The majority of identity breach incidents (61%) were related to Google Voice scams. These attacks are typically carried out on online marketplaces by fraudsters posing as buyers or sellers. Victims are usually persuaded to share their Google Voice verification code, use it to create a new Google Voice account, and immediately scam others.
“The ITRC has received calls from people selling puppies, looking for lost pets and renting out rooms asking them to provide a Google Voice verification code to prove their authenticity. We have received reports that there are,” the nonprofit warned in a February alert.
The majority (61%) of identity abuse incidents are related to account takeover, and one-third (32%) are defined as new account creation attacks.
Social media accounts accounted for nearly three-quarters (72%) of abuses for “non-governmental/financial accounts.” Additionally, the report claims that about 30% of account takeover scams and 62% of new account creation scams involved financial accounts such as bank and credit card accounts.
Driver’s license accounts are also under increased scrutiny from identity theft criminals. It now accounts for 15% of government account abuse/takeover incidents, up from 4% in 2021.
“One thing that hasn’t changed is that there are too many victims of these crimes and too few resources to help them,” argued ITRC President Eva Velázquez.
“The White House’s recently released presidential plan document emphasizes the need for government agencies and non-profit organizations like the ITRC to work together to help victims who don’t know what to do next. We look forward to working with our country’s leaders to realize our vision of improving services for identity theft victims.”
