Identity Theft and Fraud: Florida 3rd Most Vulnerable, Study Says

When it comes to target-rich environments for thieves to part victims from their identities and money, Florida ranks third in the nation. That’s according to a new study released Wednesday by WalletHub.

The personal finance and free credit-monitoring website conducted an analysis of identity theft and fraud across all 50 states and the District of Columbia in honor of December’s National Identity Theft Prevention and Awareness Month. WalletHub’s number crunchers compared data related to a number of factors to come up with the 2016 States Most Vulnerable to Identity Theft & Fraud report.

“The holiday season is traditionally a time for celebration and togetherness,” WalletHub’s website explains. “But it’s also an opportunity for identity thieves and hackers to prey on millions of innocent consumers.”

WalletHub pointed out that some of the country’s most high-profile data breaches have occurred during the holiday shopping period. Those cases included the 2013 Target breach and the 2014 breach of Home Depot consumer information.

“According to the Identity Theft Resource Center’s most recent Data Breach Report, 901 breaches with access to more than 34 million records have taken place thus far in 2016, and more are likely to be reported by the end of the year,” WalletHub said. “Until 2015, identity theft was the top complaint received by the Federal Trade Commission for 15 consecutive years.”

WalletHub’s rankings were based on data related to a variety of categories. Those categories included identity theft complaints per capita, average loss amount due to fraud, state security freeze laws for minors’ credit reports and more. The metrics were broken up into three main ranking areas: identity theft, fraud and policy.

When all was said and done, the District of Columbia was ranked the country’s most vulnerable place. It was followed by California in second and Florida in third. The Top 5 rankings were rounded out by Massachusetts in fourth place and Nevada in fifth. South Dakota was named the least vulnerable state in the nation.

Florida’s vulnerable status is attributed to poor rankings in several of the study’s focus areas. The Sunshine State ranked:

• First in identity theft complaints per capita
• First in fraud and other complaints per capita
• First in identity theft passport program
• 15th in average loss amount due to online identity theft

For more information about the study, visit WalletHub online.

Image via Shutterstock