There were nearly 17 million identity fraud victims in the United States in 2017, more than ever before. This increase is likely supported by the increasing number of data breaches and stolen identity records in recent years, which is keeping up the pace so far in 2018 with 124 data breaches coming to public attention already.
Notably, Javelin identified an increase in new account fraud and account takeover fraud, as fraudsters are making use of stolen identities and credentials compromised in one of the many recent data breaches. The number of account takeover victims tripled from last year while dollar losses more than doubled to $5.1 million. Account takeover fraud now represents more than 30 percent of all identity fraud losses in the United States.
