The States Most Vulnerable To Identity Theft & Fraud In 2019

There's no denying identity theft and fraud are huge problems in the United States. Americans are becoming more concerned about protecting their personal data after businesses, such as WhatsApp, Quest Diagnostics, Target, Capital One and others, have experienced huge breaches this past year.

WalletHub set out to discover which states are the most and least vulnerable to identity theft and fraud. According to their study, residents of Washington D.C. were the most vulnerable in 2019. To determine where Americans are most susceptible to such crimes, WalletHub compared the 50 states, as well as D.C., across 15 key metrics. The data set ranges from identity-theft complaints per capita to average loss amount due to fraud. Here are their findings:

Most Vulnerable:

10) Florida

9) New York

8) Texas

7) Louisiana

6) Delaware

5) South Carolina

4) New Hampshire

3) Nevada

2) California

1) District of Columbia

Least Vulnerable:

10) Missouri

9) Maine

8) Arkansas

7) Hawaii

6) Kansas

5) Oklahoma

4) West Virginia

3) Vermont

2) Wyoming

1) Kentucky

Here are some other key stats from WalletHub's study:

• Vermont has the fewest identity-theft complaints (per 100,000 residents), 51, which is 4.5 times fewer than in the Georgia, the most at 229.
• North Dakota has the lowest average loss amount due to online identity theft, $1,214, which is 87.2 times lower than in Minnesota, the highest at $105,919.
• North Dakota has the fewest fraud complaints (per 100,000 residents), 337, which is 3.5 times fewer than in the District of Columbia, the most at 1,179.
• Illinois, Michigan, New Hampshire, Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Wisconsin have the lowest median loss amount due to fraud, $300, which is 1.6 times lower than in North Dakota, the highest at $490.

Was your state one of the most vulnerable to identity theft?

Photo: Getty