States With the Most & Least Risks for ID Theft Crimes: New Research Findings

The National Council of Identity Theft Protection (NCITP) said ID theft has nearly become an “unstoppable issue,” pointing out that someone’s identity is stolen every 22 seconds and more than a third of American consumers have faced some form of ID theft.

While there are no easy ways to avoid ID theft, new research from U.S. News and World Report ranked the top 10 states with the highest risk for ID theft crimes and the top 10 states with the lowest risk of ID theft.

The most common ID theft crimes that cause billions of dollars in losses annually include account takeover or misusing a financial account, starting a new financial account with the victim’s information and information theft such a Social Security identity theft, according to the NCITP. The organization said it expects ID theft crimes to keep growing because consumers are digitally dependent and the theft methods are becoming more sophisticated.

Georgia is the No. 1 state where consumers are at most risk for ID theft crimes, followed by Rhode Island, Louisiana, Illinois, Texas, Florida, Kansas, South Carolina, Nevada and Massachusetts.

Iowa is the No. 1 state where consumers have the least risk for ID Theft crimes, followed by Vermont, South Dakota, Kentucky, West Virginia, Montana, New Mexico, Virginia, Wyoming and Minnesota.

U.S. News said its methodology to determine the rankings were weighted based on the incidence of identity theft reports from 2019 to 2021 per 100,000 people, the ratio of identity theft as a proportion of all fraud and the legal framework in each state.

Georgia had high levels of identity theft in each of the three years studied and a high ratio of identity theft to overall fraud. The Peach State was in the top 10 for identity theft during the three-year period, and it also had the highest ratio of identity theft to overall fraud in 2019 and 2020, according to U.S. News research.

No. 2, Rhode Island, scored among the highest rates per capita of identity theft in 2020 and 2021, but as a percentage of overall fraud cases, the Ocean State was below several other states.

Louisiana was ranked third because it had the second-highest ratio of identity theft to overall fraud in 2020 and 2021, and the Pelican State was in the top 10 for cases per 100,000 in two of the three years, the news outlet said.

Among the states that had the least risk of ID theft crime, Iowa garnered consistently low levels of identity theft reports over the three-year period and a low proportion of identity theft in overall fraud cases. But another positive for the Hawkeye State is its identity theft passport law, which streamlines the process that allows its residents to verify their identity and take other steps to recover it, according to U.S. News.

Vermont took the No. 2 ranking as it scored at lower levels than most other states in both identity theft numbers and the ratio to overall fraud, and South Dakota was ranked No. 3 for having lower levels than other states in 2019 and 2020 for identity theft per capita.