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There were over 389,000 reports of credit card fraud to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in 2021. Globally, there were over $32 billion in losses. Sources: Federal Trade Commission and Nilson
In 2021, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) reported that there were 5.7 million reports related to consumer fraud, and credit card fraud was one of the most reported types. The top two types of fraud included identity theft and impostor scams, which can also relate to credit card fraud. With this type of fraud being so prevalent, it’s helpful to know the data so you can know what to look out for.
When you become the target of credit card fraud, it can damage your credit score and make it difficult to recover. Here, we’ll go over some of the most important findings as well as what you can do if you’ve become the victim of credit card fraud.
Table of contents:
Identity theft in the U.S. Identity theft in the U.S. by age Identity theft by state Credit card fraud in the U.S. Global credit card fraud losses by year Data breaches by year How credit card fraud hurts your credit score
Key credit card fraud statistics Credit card fraud was down in the United States between 2020 and 2021, but it’s still a major problem. In addition to someone stealing your personal information, resulting in fraud, it’s also possible for a company you use to have its data breached. The following are some key findings from the data we collected:
There were over 389,000 cases of credit card fraud reported to the FTC in 2021 (Federal Trade Commission )
The largest data breach of credit card information happened in 2009 to Heartland Systems, and it affected 160 million credit cards (U.S. Department of Justice )
Global losses from credit card fraud totaled over $32 billion in 2021 (Nilson )
In 2021, Texas had the most reported cases of credit card fraud with over 146,000 reports (Federal Trade Commission )
People ages 30 to 39 reported the most cases of credit card fraud in 2021, but those 80 years and older experienced the highest median loss of $1,500 per report (Federal Trade Commission )
Identity theft in the U.S. According to the FTC, identity theft was the most common form of fraud reported during 2021. Identity theft accounted for just over 25% of all of the reports, which totaled 1.4 million reports during that year.
There are many ways criminals use stolen identities, but the most common form identified in the FTC report was people using stolen identities to open checking and savings accounts. This type of identity theft was up 64%compared to the previous year.
It’s also beneficial to remember that these are just the reported cases. There are many victims who never report these types of crimes to the FTC, so this number is likely higher than 1.4 million cases.
The seven common types of identity theft Although criminals are likely to use stolen identities to open checking and savings accounts, there are seven common types of identity theft . Although criminals are likely to use stolen identities to open checking and savings accounts, there are seven types of theft that lead to stolen identities. This can include phone and utility fraud, government document or benefits fraud as well as tax-related fraud. Criminals then use these methods for fraudulent activities.
Government documents and benefits fraud leads the list with almost 400,000 cases reported, but it’s down two and a half percent compared to 2020. While this type of identity theft and credit card fraud is down, bank fraud increased by nearly 40%.
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Type of identity fraud
Cases reported in 2021
Percent change from 2020
Government documents or benefits fraud
395,948
-2.5%
Credit card fraud
389,737
-.8%
Other identity theft
377,102
6.7%
Loan or lease fraud
197,914
-3.4%
Bank fraud
124,388
39%
Employment or tax-related fraud
111,723
-1.5%
Phone or utilities fraud
88,813
-10%
Source: Federal Trade Commission Consumer Sentinel Network Data Book 2020 and 2021 Reported frauds in the U.S. by age The most recent data from 2021 shows that adults between the ages of 60 and 69 experienced the most cases of fraud, but those between 30 and 39 had the most losses that totaled almost $600 million.
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Age group
Percentage of cases
Reported cases
Total losses (in millions)
19 and under
3%
42,054
$51
20 to 29 years old
14%
186,639
$363
30 to 39 years old
17%
221,870
$598
40 to 49 years old
14%
191,372
$495
50 to 59 years old
16%
208,411
$484
60 to 69 years old
19%
249,597
$521
70 to 79 years old
12%
164,902
$364
80 and older
4%
52,325
$149
Source: Federal Trade Commission Consumer Sentinel Network Data Book 2021 Those between 30 and 39 years old experienced the most losses—however, Americans 80 years and older experienced the highest losses per person. The FTC also tracks the median amount of money lost, and those 80 years and older had a median loss of $1,500. To put that into perspective, reports for people between 20 and 69 years old lost closer to $500 per case.
Identity theft by age The age group that reported the most cases of identity theft were those between 30 and 39 years old, similar to the total amount of fraud cases reported. Identity theft prevention is crucial, but many people of all ages don’t know what it entails. One notable data point is that compared to the FTC’s 2020 report , there was a significant decrease in identity theft for those 40 to 59 years old. This may be due to the fact that during 2020, many adults were receiving government benefits from the COVID pandemic, which led to a high amount of cases reported for government benefit forms of identity theft.
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Age group
Reports of identity theft in 2021
Percentage change
19 and under
22,833
-3.5%
20 to 29 years old
191,334
.22%
30 to 39 years old
308,910
.92%
40 to 49 years old
266,269
-12%
50 to 59 years old
206,514
-15%
60 to 69 years old
118,093
-4%
70 to 79 years old
45,068
16%
80 and older
9,917
.02%
Source: Federal Trade Commission Consumer Sentinel Network Data Book 2021 Identity theft by state Every state, including the District of Columbia, is affected by identity theft . In 2021, Texas had the highest number of identity theft reports, with over 146,000 total reports. Texas is one of the most populated states, so when looking at the number of reports per 100,000 population, Rhode Island had the most reports at 2,857. Wyoming had the least reports at 620.
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State
Total number of reports
Reports per 100k population
AK
896
122
AL
19,691
402
AR
6,358
211
AZ
28,108
386
CA
133,119
337
CO
33,572
583
CT
6,666
187
DE
5,449
560
FL
110,675
522
GA
65,666
618
HI
2,993
211
IA
3,758
119
ID
2,719
152
IL
117,056
924
IN
11,866
176
KS
39,461
1,355
KY
10,416
233
LA
34,043
732
MA
16,566
240
MD
29,778
493
ME
2,239
167
MI
20,556
206
MN
9,457
168
MO
13,372
218
MS
9,906
333
MT
1,130
106
NC
30,318
289
ND
999
131
NE
2,409
125
NH
2,205
162
NJ
31,857
359
NM
4,611
220
NV
17,985
584
NY
109,466
563
OH
50,421
431
OK
6,850
173
OR
8,016
190
PA
54,460
425
RI
30,270
2,857
SC
17,642
343
SD
673
76
TN
20,254
297
TX
146,095
504
UT
8,016
189
VA
19,217
225
VT
825
132
WA
12,917
170
WI
11,253
193
WV
2,845
159
WY
620
107
Source: Federal Trade Commission Consumer Sentinel Network Data Book 2021 Top 25 metropolitan areas with the most identity theft Looking even closer at which areas have the most reports of identity theft, Providence-Warwick, RI-MA Metropolitan Statistical Area had the most per 100,000 people at 1,981. Illinois had the most reports within a metropolitan area, which came from the Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN-WI Metropolitan Statistical Area at over 92,000 total reports.
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Metropolitan area
Total number of reports
Reports per 100k population
Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN-WI Metropolitan Statistical Area
92,239
975
Houston-The Woodlands-Sugar Land, TX Metropolitan Statistical Area
57,733
817
Miami-Fort Lauderdale-Pompano Beach, FL Metropolitan Statistical Area
51,751
839
Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Alpharetta, GA Metropolitan Statistical Area
51,172
850
Providence-Warwick, RI-MA Metropolitan Statistical Area
32,176
1,981
Kansas City, MO-KS Metropolitan Statistical Area
17,291
801
Las Vegas-Henderson-Paradise, NV Metropolitan Statistical Area
15,055
664
Cleveland-Elyria, OH Metropolitan Statistical Area
13,833
675
Memphis, TN-MS-AR Metropolitan Statistical Area
12,434
924
Baton Rouge, LA Metropolitan Statistical Area
10,126
1,184
Wichita, KS Metropolitan Statistical Area
8,825
1,378
New Orleans-Metairie, LA Metropolitan Statistical Area
8,311
654
Rochester, NY Metropolitan Statistical Area
6,929
648
Lafayette, LA Metropolitan Statistical Area
5,931
1,212
Syracuse, NY Metropolitan Statistical Area
4,423
682
Topeka, KS Metropolitan Statistical Area
3,591
1,548
Tuscaloosa, AL Metropolitan Statistical Area
2,907
1,153
Rockford, IL Metropolitan Statistical Area
2,393
712
Lawrence, KS Metropolitan Statistical Area
2,175
1,779
Springfield, IL Metropolitan Statistical Area
1,723
833
Champaign-Urbana, IL Metropolitan Statistical Area
1,462
647
Manhattan, KS Metropolitan Statistical Area
1,384
1,062
Bloomington, IL Metropolitan Statistical Area
1,269
740
Kankakee, IL Metropolitan Statistical Area
863
786
Decatur, IL Metropolitan Statistical Area
697
670
Credit card fraud in the U.S. While government benefits fraud is the most common type of identity theft, credit card fraud is still a major problem in the United States. As shown in a previous table, this was the leading type of fraud for people ages 20 to 39, and there were almost 400,000 reports in 2021.
States with the most and least credit card fraud complaints In the FTC’s 2021 report, California had the highest amount of fraud complaints, which totaled over 391,000. This was roughly 70,000 more than the second state, Texas. The total amount lost in California due to credit card fraud was an astounding $820 million. The state with the least amount of reports was Wyoming, with 3,221 reports, but South Dakota had the lowest amount of losses at $6.8 million.
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State
Total number of reports
Total losses
AK
6,906
$13,078,284
AL
26,986
$44,712,880
AR
16,142
$16,692,589
AZ
51,873
$116,030,737
CA
244,585
$820,858,149
CO
46,089
$87,975,013
CT
21,278
$40,886,958
DE
7,367
$14,135,903
FL
156,319
$331,282,322
GA
65,977
$112,980,173
HI
9,193
$22,502,406
IA
14,643
$21,219,834
ID
10,786
$16,949,046
IL
78,280
$128,953,942
IN
39,621
$46,881,596
KS
16,940
$19,916,988
KY
25,082
$30,598,771
LA
23,404
$30,022,528
MA
44,020
$91,319,599
MD
45,832
$93,976,802
ME
8,397
$9,708,190
MI
58,709
$83,309,393
MN
33,234
$60,317,592
MO
39,182
$52,266,861
MS
13,952
$23,422,036
MT
6,712
$9,582,342
NC
64,517
$93,015,171
ND
3,309
$8,897,094
NE
10,242
$14,314,521
NH
9,299
$13,660,810
NJ
54,494
$122,175,462
NM
13,773
$23,200,453
NV
24,729
$69,551,003
NY
123,684
$280,882,468
OH
69,970
$86,270,313
OK
22,036
$26,906,284
OR
30,950
$65,371,881
PA
79,178
$120,888,991
RI
6,758
$11,564,650
SC
30,918
$46,428,921
SD
3,698
$6,828,535
TN
42,606
$62,602,651
TX
169,503
$369,437,769
UT
19,327
$37,346,855
VA
59,345
$112,898,996
VT
4,132
$10,038,458
WA
57,453
$135,661,564
WI
33,942
$48,716,758
WV
10,219
$10,206,786
WY
3,221
$7,751,648
The most common forms of credit card fraud There are two main forms of credit card fraud. These include fraud for existing accounts as well as fraud involving new accounts.
New accounts: The thief will use your personal information to open a new credit card account under your name.Existing accounts: This is when the thief uses a card you already have to make purchases, which is done by using your information.
Fortunately, we’ve seen a slight decrease in both types of credit card fraud between 2020 and 2021.
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Type of credit card fraud
Number of reports in 2021
Percentage change from 2020
New accounts
363,092
-.68%
Existing accounts
32,204
-4.8%
Source: Federal Trade Commission Consumer Sentinel Network Data Book 2020 and 2021 Global credit card fraud losses by year Nilson creates an annual report tracking credit card fraud losses each year. While the United States has hundreds of thousands of credit card fraud reports via the FTC, there are many other countries that deal with credit card fraud as well. Since 2014, credit card fraud outside the United States has increased by roughly 87%.
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Year
Losses inside the U.S. (in billions)
Losses outside the U.S. (in billions)
2014
$7.2
$10.9
2015
$8.4
$13.4
2016
$9
$13.8
2017
$8.9
$15
2018
$9.4
$18.4
2019
$9.6
$19
2020
$10.
$18.3
2021
$11.9
$20.4
Source: Nilson Report December 2022 Data breaches by year The Identity Theft Resource Center (ITRC) tracks data breaches as well as the total number of victims in their annual report . The most recent data from 2022 shows that there were over 1,800 data breaches, which affected 422 million victims. The highest number of victims came from a Twitter data breach, which affected a total of 221.5 million victims. Twitter also had a second data breach that affected 5.4 million people.
The total number of data breaches dropped to 1,108 in 2020 and then jumped 68%in 2021. We’ve seen a slight decrease between 2021 and 2022 of about 3%.
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Year
Data breaches
2017
1,506
2018
1,175
2019
1,279
2020
1,108
2021
1,862
2022
1,802
Source: ITRC 2022 Data Breach Report Now, some may wonder why cybercriminals are targeting businesses more than individuals. The ITRC believes it’s much easier for these criminals to attack large companies that store millions of people’s data because they can get much more from a single attack.
Ransomware attacks are on the rise, when cybercriminals attack companies, steal sensitive user information and threaten to release it unless the victim pays a significant amount of money. In early 2023, Oakland declared a state of emergency after a ransomware attack caused network outages. And in 2022, Australia experienced multiple ransomware attacks, and one targeted Australian military personnel and defense staff.
Top 3 causes of data breaches As a consumer, it’s beneficial to understand the causes of these data breaches. The ITRC’s report lists the top three causes of data breaches as cyberattacks, system and human errors, as well as physical attacks.
Cyberattacks: Phishing emails, ransomware, malware, nonsecured cloud environment and credential stuffingSystem and human errors: Failure to configure cloud security, correspondence via email or physical mail, misconfigured firewall and lost devices or documentsPhysical attacks: document theft, device theft, improper disposal and skimming devices
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Causes of data breaches
Number of attacks
Cyberattacks
11,595
System and human errors
151
Physical attacks
46
Source: ITRC 2022 Data Breach Report The five largest credit card data breaches Investopedia has created a list of the largest credit card data breaches to date. While it’s possible for your credit card information to be stolen if you click on the wrong link or someone steals your information, it can also be vulnerable due to a breach of your credit card company. The largest data breach of credit card information took place in 2009, which affected 160 million credit cards through companies like JC Penny, Wet Seal, JetBlue and many more.
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Company
Year
Number of cards affected (in millions)
Heartland Systems
2009
160
Capital One
2019
106
TJX Companies
2006
94
TRW/Sears
1984
90
The Home Depot
2014
56
Sources: Investopedia, Wall Street Journal, Associated Press, New York Times, U.S. Department of Justice Most common forms of compromised data Criminals who steal user data aren’t always looking for credit card numbers. In the ITRC 2022 report, they also compiled a list of the most common forms of compromised data. Most often, criminals steal a user’s name, and second on the list is a person’s Social Security number. Fortunately, only a small portion of these include a user’s bank account information.
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Type of data stolen
Number of compromises
Name
1,560
Full social security number
1,143
Date of birth
633
Current home address
565
Driver’s license or state ID number
499
Medical history, condition, treatment or diagnosis
465
Bank account number
443
Medical insurance account number
370
Undisclosed records
226
Medical provider account or record number
196
Source: ITRC 2022 Data Breach Report How credit card fraud hurts your credit score As you now know, credit card fraud is a major issue in the United States as well as around the world. Even if you keep your personal information under lock and key, you’re still at risk of a company you use having their systems compromised by cybercriminals. Once your information is stolen, these thieves can make charges that are hard to reverse and harm your credit score.
If you’ve been the victim of a cybercrime or simply have a credit score that could use some work, Credit.com is here to help. We offer a variety of services like ExtraCredit , and we can help you manage and build your credit.
You can also get your free credit report card. Sign up here to see where your credit stands today!
The post Credit Card Fraud Statistics Everyone Should Know in 2023 appeared first on Credit.com .
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