LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — Over the past three years, reports of identity theft have increased by 63% in metro Las Vegas, according to a survey that ranks the area as No. 8 in the nation.
A total of 11,219 cases of identity theft were reported from 2019-2022 in the Las Vegas-Henderson-Paradise metro statistical area. In the last year of the survey, identity thefts actually dropped by 29.5%.
The cases in metro Las Vegas accounted for 88.5% of all identity thefts in Nevada. The state ranked No. 5 in the nation for per-capita identity theft reports, with a total of 12,672 over the three-year period.
Nationally, 1.1 million identity theft reports were filed from 2019 to 2022, representing a three-year change of more than 70%. For every 10,000 residents, 33.4 identity thefts were reported in the United States. In Nevada, that number was 40.3.
Many identity theft cases sprung up during the COVID-19 pandemic, and the drop in 2022 came as many unemployment and loan programs ended. The study reports the number of identity theft cases increased nationwide by 113% from 2019 to 2020.
Identity thieves are looking for other sources of money now.
Credit card fraud has long been the most common form of identity theft, but the study shows fraud targeting new bank accounts has become a huge problem, rising about 307% over the three-year period from 2019 to 2022. That's even higher than the government benefits fraud during the pandemic, when about $46 billion was stolen, according to a U.S. Department of Labor estimate.
The study of data from the Federal Trade Commission and the U.S. Census Bureau was released Monday. The study was posted on the upgradedpoints.com website.
Want to be a little safer from identity thieves? Try moving to South Dakota.
The Top 10 metro areas with the highest number of cases per-capita:
- Miami-Fort Lauderdale-Pompano Beach, Florida
- Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Alpharetta, Georgia
- Houston-The Woodlands-Sugar Land, Texas
- Orlando-Kissimmee-Sanford, Florida
- Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington, Pennsylvania/New Jersey/Delaware/Maryland
- Memphis, Tennessee/Mississippi/Arkansas
- Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, California
- Las Vegas-Henderson-Paradise, Nevada
- New Orleans-Metairie, Louisiana
- Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, Texas
Reno ranked No. 66 among midsize metro areas. Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario, California came in at No. 62 on the list of all metro areas. St. George, Utah, was No. 169; Lake Havasu City-Kingman, Arizona, ranked No. 246; Flagstaff was No. 312.
