You can't keep a good identity thief down. The best ones will always come back with a new scheme to defraud vulnerable and unaware Americans, resulting in billions of dollars in losses.
Consider that between October and December, Allstate Identity Protection recorded an 11% increase in identity theft and fraud cases, the firm reported Thursday. The increase was led by rapid spikes in instances of fraudulent credit or loan account creation, inquiries and applications.
"In today's digitally connected world, cyber fraud and identity theft have become the ultimate crimes of opportunity: as quickly as vulnerabilities are detected and protected against, new ones emerge," Emily Snell, president of Allstate Identity Protection, said in a statement.
"Yet, few resources exist to help Americans, experts and the news media understand digital fraud and the latest attacks."
To address this issue, Allstate Identity Protection has launched Identity Fraud in Focus, a quarterly report designed to expose the latest lines of attack identity thieves are using.
The fourth-quarter report found that fraudulent creation of new credit and loan accounts grew by 61% from 2020 to 2021. By year-end, this type of fraud accounted for more than half of the firm's identity theft cases.
Another 42% of cases from October to December 2021 were instances of credit and loan applications.
