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Studies show that fraud involving identity theft is expected to increase close to 50% this year. We all know how easy it is to order virtually everything from our phones. From dinner, to groceries and beyond, each online profile could create an opportunity for someone to steal your identity. According to the National Insurance Crime Bureau, synthetic identities are created from a mix of real and fake identifiers such as social security numbers, birth dates, names, emails, addresses and or phone numbers. These identifiers can be stolen or leaked. 

Previously, criminals would only use one identifier, but in today’s day in age we sometimes make it easy for them to find out multiple things about. In turn, this makes synthetic identity fraud the fasted growing financial crime. Thousands of insurance claims have revealed increases in identity crime over the years. AARP even reports that this type of crime has resulted in $47 billion dollars in losses in 2024 alone. They expect the number to increase even more this year. 

We urge you to take these steps in protecting your personal information:

1. Lock your credit report 
2. Leverage a password manager 
3. Create unique user IDs and passwords for every platform.
4. Only carry your social security card or passport when necessary.
5. Never reveal your personal information on unsecured websites or to unknown callers. 
6. Delete information from digital platforms. 
7. Utilize two-factor authentication when available

For more information on how you can protect yourself from identity theft visit nicb.org.

Content provided by National Insurance Crime Bureau.