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What Are Your Odds of Getting Your Identity Stolen?

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Summary:

Some analysts estimate that you’re four times more likely to be killed by hornets, wasps, or bees than to have a winning lottery ticket. Others have noted that you’d have a better chance of falling out of bed (2 million to 1), getting struck by lightning (1.2 million to 1), or drawing a royal flush in the first hand of poker (649,739 to 1). By comparison, your odds of winning the lottery average about 300 million to 1.

If only those were the same odds as becoming a victim of identity theft.

Unfortunately, even though people may think this type of criminal activity is somewhat rare, identity theft statistics show that your chances of being affected might be much higher than you think. This is especially true if you’re in a high-risk group, like those affected by data breaches or living in certain states.

Identity Theft By the Numbers

Consider these identity theft statistics:

In other words, if your chances of winning the lottery were 1 in 20 – the odds of being an ID theft victim – we’d all have family, friends, and colleagues who are millionaires.

Changing the Odds of Identity Theft

Although we can’t help you secure a future Powerball prize, we can offer some thoughts on tipping the odds in your favor when it comes to identity theft statistics.

Some good prevention tactics include changing passwords regularly to avoid credential stuffing and other account takeover fraud methods, being cautious when putting personal information on social media, and checking your bank and credit accounts frequently to spot fraudulent transactions. The more proactive monitoring, the better, including monitoring credit reports and credit score changes, so you are aware of any changes or discrepancies that don’t make sense. Staying vigilant if your personally identifiable information (PII) appears on the Dark Web is also critical.

Another helpful addition to your identity theft protection strategies is having an identity monitoring service like IdentityForce, which continuously monitors for suspicious activity, provides alerts, and offers white-glove restoration and assistance with a $1 million identity theft insurance recovery policy if needed. No one wants to be the next identity theft victim, so put some tactics into place now to improve your odds.

What You Need to Know:

The credit scores provided are based on the VantageScore® 3.0 model. Lenders use a variety of credit scores and are likely to use a credit score different from VantageScore® 3.0 to assess your creditworthiness.