Identity Scams Soar to Make 2021 a Record Year

guest · Aug 17, 2022

August 17, 2022

Google Voice scams led the way in what was a record year for identity-related fraud in 2021, according to the Identity Theft Resource Center (ITRC).

The non-profit said it received 14,947 reports from consumers during the year, a 26% increase from 2020 and the most it has ever had to deal with.
Half (50%) of these were scam victims: that is, they shared personally identifiable information (PII) with their attacker. More than half (53%) of this group comprised Google Voice scams, making it the most prevalent fraud type of the year.
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Fraudsters typically seek out victims who are selling items online. They will send them a Google verification code and request that the victim shares that code – ostensibly to verify they are a ‘real’ seller.

In reality, if the victim does so, their phone number will be linked to a newly created fraudulent Google Voice account which will be used to scam others.
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Elsewhere, the ITRC recorded an 8% increase in “identity misuse” incidents, totalling 4168 in number. Two-fifths (40%) of these were related to financial account misuse, with most of this group linked to new account fraud (64%) and the remainder to account takeover (36%).

Over half (55%) of identity misuse cases were recorded as attempts to open, access or take over government accounts or apply for benefits – no doubt spurred by the prevalence of COVID relief payments in the US.
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ITRC CEO, Eva Velasquez, branded 2021 a record year for identity scams.

“With high water marks for identity fraud, compromises and misuse, it’s important to take protective measures like freezing your credit, using strong 12+ character unique passphrases on all of your accounts and ignoring suspicious messages,” she advised.
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ITRC Trends in Identity Report
(PDF): https://www.idtheftcenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/2021-Trends-in-Identity-Report-FINAL.pdf

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