Trang Thi Thu Horn and Mahmoud Yousef, A Study of COVID-19 Effects on the Identity Theft Landscape (2024)

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Article by Trang Thi Thu Horn and Mahmoud Yousef of the University of Central Missouri, A Study of COVID-19 Effects on the Identity Theft Landscape, in the Engineering and Technology Journal, Volume 09 Issue 01, January 2024, pages 3353-3360. Using Federal Trade Commission data on identity theft reports by state and category over the six-year period 2017-2022, the authors find a significant increase in identity thefts across all states in 2020 compared with 2019, with percentage increases ranging from 45% to 1,801.1%, the largest in Kansas, Rhode Island, Maine, Washington and Illinois. Reports of government documents or benefits fraud rose by between 207.7% and 33,236%. The authors attribute this to the sudden availability of unemployment benefits, stimulus checks and small business loans and the expedited process for distributing them.

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Engineering and Technology Journal e-ISSN: 2456-3358
Volume 09 Issue 01 January-2024, Page No.- 3353-3360
DOI: 10.47191/etj/v9i01.15, I.F. – 7.136
© 2024, ETJ

A Study of COVID-19 Effects on the Identity Theft Landscape
Trang Thi Thu Horn1, Mahmoud Yousef2
1,2
University of Central Missouri

ABSTRACT: This research studies the impact of COVID-19 on the identity theft landscape using historical data published by the
Federal Trade Commission. The data set included information about the number of identity theft reports for each state per year over
a 6-year period, 2017 -2022. The dataset also included the number of reports for each identity theft category, providing a holistic
view of the identity theft landscape. The data showed a significant increase in the number of identity thefts across all the states in
2020 compared to 2019; the percentage increase ranged from 45% to 1,801.1%. This coincided with the pandemic, which started in
December 2019. The top 5 states that had the highest percent increase in 2020 are Kansas, Rhode Island, Maine, Washington, and
Illinois. Moreover, in the year 2020, there was a dramatic increase across all the states in the number of identity theft reports related
to government documents or benefits fraud, ranging from 207.7% to 33,236% increase compared to the year 2019. This was due to
the sudden increase in available funds to help Americans during the pandemic, including unemployment benefits, stimulus checks,
small business loans, etc., along with the expedited process to distribute the funds, which created ideal conditions for cybercriminals,
especially identity thieves.

KEYWORDS: cybercrime, identity theft, benefits fraud, phishing, COVID-19

INTRODUCTION of the pandemic, the number of phishing incidents increased
COVID-19 has had a great impact on various aspects of our by 220% compared to the yearly average (Warburton,
society, ranging from public health to the national economy, n.d.).Phishing attacks are a type of attack that uses emails or
and created a significant increase in cybercrimes. Due to text messages to trick the victims into giving their personal
COVID-19, small and local businesses downsized or went out and financial information (Federal Trade Commission, n.d.).
of business, causing widespread economic hardship and For example, a person receives an email that appears to come
contributing to a huge increase in unemployment. Many from a reputable source, which can be a company, a financial
economic sectors, including service and travel industries, institution, or a government agency. The email then warns
faced high unemployment rates due to sharp decreases in them of an issue that needs their attention immediately, which
demand or shutdowns. Reports of anxiety and depression will encourage them to click on a link or a button to go to the
worldwide were also on the rise (World Health Organization, website. These sites can be phony sites that mimic legitimate
2022). In response to such unprecedented challenges, the sites or actual company sites with popup windows that will
government had several assistance programs to help appear for the purpose of harvesting sensitive personal
individuals, families, and businesses. In addition, remote information (The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency,
working created challenges for small and medium-sized n.d.). Then they might be asked to update their account
companies since they were often not well prepared for the information and provide information about their social
surge in cybercrimes. The sudden move to remote working security number, account number, passwords, or other
and learning made individuals who were not sufficiently information to verify their identity. Phishing attacks are
prepared in complex cyber environments easy targets for commonly utilized to harvest data for identity theft attacks.
cybercriminals. These conditions created a perfect storm for Identity theft is a type of fraud that involves stealing
cybercrimes, especially identity theft. and using someone else’s sensitive personal or financial
information without permission (Federal Trade Commission,
PHISHING AND IDENTITY THEFTS n.d.). The sensitive information can be name, address, social
The very first confirmed case of COVID-19 in the United security information, credit card information, bank account
States was reported in January 2020, and in the same year, the information, etc. Identity thieves can buy things with the
FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center received about 791,790 victim’s credit card information, get new credit cards in the
complaints of cybercrimes, an increase of over 300,000 victim's name, open new accounts with the stolen
complaints compared to 2019 (Federal Bureau of information, steal tax refunds, etc. (Federal Trade
Investigation, 2021). It was also reported that the total loss to Commission, n.d.). In addition, identity thieves can take out
cybercrimes in 2020 was over $4.2 billion. During the peak loans or even a driver's license in the victim's name, causing
3353 Trang Thi Thu Horn1, ETJ Volume 09 Issue 01 January 2024
“A Study of COVID-19 Effects on the Identity Theft Landscape”
financial and reputational damages to the victims, which can identity theft, then analyzes and disseminates the data through
take the victims years to recover (The Office of the reports and its publicly available database. Besides, it also has
Comptroller of the Currency, n.d.). In 2020, it was reported a dedicated identity theft website that provides resources and
that identity theft complaints related to government benefits guidance for prevention and addressing identity theft. The
increased by 3,000%, causing troubles and challenges for data set used in this research contained information about the
both individuals and the federal government (Pandemic number of identity theft reports across all the states for the
Oversight, n.d.). In fact, it took the Internal Revenue Service years from 2017 to 2022. It also contained information about
(IRS) 260 days to resolve a case of identity theft of a citizen, the number of reports for each category of identity theft for
causing a long wait for the taxpayer and holding up their tax each state each year, providing a holistic view of the identity
refund and stimulus check. (Pandemic Oversight, n.d.) theft landscape over the years. There was a total of seven
categories of identity theft, including credit card fraud, bank
COVID-19 effects on identity theft fraud, phone or utility fraud, loan or lease fraud, employment
This study will focus on studying the effects of COVID-19 or tax-related fraud, government documents or benefits fraud,
on identity theft. This research utilizes historical data, which and other identity theft fraud. The data was then extracted and
involves the use of publicly available datasets provided by the put into an Excel spreadsheet for further analysis.
Federal Trade Commission (FTC). The FTC is an agency of Overall, there was a significant increase in the
the United States government with the mission of protecting number of identity theft reports from 2019 to 2020 across all
consumers (Federal Trade Commission, n.d.). The agency the states.
collects reports from individuals who have been victims of

Figure 1- Numbers of identity theft reports per 100K population in 2019 and 2020

The percentage increase in the number of identity theft Kansas, Rhode Island, Maine, Wahington, and Illinois.
complaints ranges from 45% to 1,801.1% for all the states Specifically, the number of identity theft reports increased by
from the year 2019 to 2020. The top five states that had the 1,801.1% in Kansas, 1,001.3% in Rhode Island, 790.1% in
highest percentage increase in identity theft complaints are Maine, 663% in Washington, and 483.6% in Illinois.

3354 Trang Thi Thu Horn1, ETJ Volume 09 Issue 01 January 2024
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Figure 2-Top five states with highest percentage increase in identity theft reports per 100k population from 2019 to 2020

Figure 3-Number of identity theft reports for each category over a six-year period (2017-2022)z

Among various types of identity theft, government number of reports of government documents or benefits
documents and benefits fraud had the highest increase from fraud from 2017 to 2019. However, after the pandemic
2019 to 2020, with a 1,521% increase. As can be seen from started, there was a dramatic increase from 2019 to 2020
the figure, before the pandemic started, government across all the states for government documents or benefits
documents or benefits fraud remained the lowest among fraud category, ranging from 207.7% to 33,236% increase
other categories of identity theft. There was a decrease in the compared to 2019.

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Figure 4-Top three identity theft categories in 2020 over a six-year period (2017-2022)

In fact, most identity theft cybercrimes reported in Kansas, overwhelmed the system. Furthermore, the legislature’s post
which has the highest increase in identity theft, are related to division of post-audit stated that the issues stemmed from its
government documents or benefits fraud. The Kansas outdated mainframe computer that relied on a patchwork of
Department of Labor experienced a record-high number of the old and new programming languages, which was
fraudulent applications, causing the agency to temporarily inadequate for processing claims (Carpenter, 2021). It was
shut down its website to hinder the criminals’ activities also noted that a significant accumulation of valid and
(O'Brien, 2021). The Kansas Department of Labor and the fraudulent claims was fueled by Congress's introduction of
audit division of the Kansas Legislature were highly complex temporary relief programs and the surge in the
confident that from January 2020 to February, during the state’s unemployment rates (from 2.9% to 12.6%).
COVID-19 health emergency, $380 million was fraudulently Specifically, the number of claims the Department of Labor
obtained by individuals personating others (Carpenter, 2021). handled soared from 3,000 in February 2020 to 66,000 in
Moreover, there was less convincing evidence concerning March 2020, with over 200,000 Kansans filing initial claims
$306 million in payments flagged as suspicious. The auditor within seven weeks due to Covid-19 (Carpenter, 2021). The
identified a potential loss totaling $686 million, equally tremendous workload strained the piecemeal system, causing
distributed between the federal unemployment fund and the periodic failures and making it impossible to predict the
state’s unemployment trust fund (Carpenter, 2021). The errors with any modification. Besides, integrating new federal
article pointed out that the cause could be the mistakes made unemployment programs caused issues in the systems that
in responding to COVID-19 and the surge in joblessness were hard to detect and resolve (Carpenter, 2021).
compounded with the rapid expansion of aid programs, which

Figure 5-Numbers of identity theft reports in Kansas in 2020

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The sudden increase in available funds, such as financial assistance, the program was rolled out quickly. It
unemployment benefits, stimulus checks, small business might have lacked adequate levels of verification and security
loans, etc., and the expedited distribution process created measures, creating opportunities for cybercriminals to exploit
ideal conditions for cybercriminals. Michael Horowitz, the the weaknesses in the system. In addition, due to the social
Justice Department Inspector General who oversaw Covid-19 distance and lockdown policy in place, the sudden shift to
relief spending, told "NBC Nightly News" that Covid-19 online and remote environments created challenges for
relief programs were organized in ways that made them individuals who were not well prepared for complex cyber
attractive targets for scammers (Dilanian & Strickler, 2022). networks, making them vulnerable to cybercrimes, including
The article also pointed out that according to experts, as much identity theft. Besides, people might not be fully aware of the
as $80 billion was lost to theft, which was approximately 10% need to protect their personal information, especially in times
of the $800 billion handed out in the Covid-19 relief plan of crisis. The pandemic led to perfect opportunities for
known as the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) (Dilanian fraudsters to create new social engineering scams, taking
& Strickler, 2022). In addition, an estimate of $90 billion to advantage of the chaotic crisis and various government aids
$400 billion was believed to have been stolen from the $900 that were available.
billion Covid-19 unemployment relief program. On top of From the year 2020 to 2021, we saw a decrease or a smaller
that, another $80 billion was potentially stolen from a percentage increase compared to the increase from 2019 to
separate Covid-19 disaster relief program (Dilanian & 2020 for government documents or benefits fraud category,
Strickler, 2022). the percentage increase ranging from 5.3% to 341.2%.
The quick disbursement of over 5 trillion in federal Meanwhile, from 2021 to 2022, we saw a decrease in the
pandemic response funds created a “perfect storm” for number of government documents or benefit frauds across all
identity fraud (Pandemic Oversight, 2022). The FTC received the states except for Connecticut. However, the percentage
a 2920% increase in the number of identity theft reports increase in Connecticut from 2021 to 2022 was much smaller
related to government documents or benefit fraud in 2020 compared to the percentage increase from 2019 to 2020.
(Pandemic Oversight, 2022). Due to the urgent need for

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On July 2023, the Connecticut Department of Labor worked closely with federal agencies and law enforcement to
(CTDOL) Commissioner warned Connecticut employers and prevent unemployment fraud and protect the employer-
residents of the rise in unemployment benefit fraud due to funded Trust Fund.
identity theft. During the pandemic, stolen identities were For other categories of identity theft, we also saw an
sold for about one dollar on the dark web, which was still increase in the number of loan or lease fraud related identity
being mined to purchase names, social security numbers, date theft reports across all the states from 2019 to 2020, as well
of birth, and other sensitive data (Connecticut Department of as employment or tax-related fraud category. The increasing
Labor, 2023). This information can be used to apply for credit percentage ranged from 31.6% to 634.6% for those
cards, unemployment benefits and bank loans (Connecticut categories, which were much smaller compared to the percent
Department of Labor, 2023). CTDOL suspected that about increase in the government documents or benefits fraud
75% of the several thousand claims they received daily were category. Please see the summary table 1 for more
fraudulent, and they withheld the payment. CTDOL has information on other categories of identity theft.

Table 1 – Summary of Identity Theft Categories Over the Years from 2019 to 2022
Identity Theft 2019-2020 2020 - 2021 2021-2022
Categories
Credit Card Fraud Most of the states showed Except for Iowa, Showed an increase from
an increase from the year Louisiana, and New the year 2021 to 2022,
2019 to 2020 across all the Mexico, most of the states except for Georgia,
states. Percentage increase showed a decrease in 2021 Louisiana, Maryland, and
ranged from 0.5% to compared to 2020 or a Tennessee
181.1%, except for New decrease in percent
Hampshire, which had a increase compared to the
5.7% decrease previous increase in 2019-
2020
Bank Fraud Except for Idaho, most of Except for New York, Stayed the same or
the states showed an New Jersey, Ohio, and showed an increase across
increase in the bank fraud Pennsylvania, most of the all the states. The increase
category. The percent states show an actual percentage ranged from
increase ranged from decrease in 2021 1% to 289.7%, except for
16.8% to 306.3% compared to 2020 or a New York, Rhode Island,
decrease in percentage New Jersey, Florida,
increase compared to the Oklahoma, and
previous increase in 2019- Mississippi
2020
Phone or Utility Fraud Showed an increase for 40 Show a decrease in 2021 Showed a decrease for 30
out of 50 states, the compared to 2020 or a out of 50 states
remaining states showed a decrease in percent
decrease from 2019 to increase compared to the
2020 previous increase in 2019-
2020 except for Maine,
Idaho, and North Dakotas
Loan or Lease Fraud Showed an increase across Stayed the same or Stayed the same or
all the states, the percent showed a decrease or a showed a decrease across
increase ranged from decrease in percent all the states except for
56.6% to 429.4% increase compared to the Indiana, Montana, and
previous increase in 2019- New Hampshire
2020
Employment or Tax- Showed an increase across Stayed the same or Most of the states stayed
Related Fraud all the states. The percent decreased or decreased in the same or showed a
increase ranged from percent increase compared decrease in the number of
31.6% to 634.6% to the previous increase in reports related to
2019-2020 employment or tax-related
fraud, except for Texas,
Maine, New Mexico,
Virginia, Missouri, and
Idaho
Other identity theft Showed an increase from Showed a decrease in Showed a decrease for 39
2019 to 2020. The percent 2021 compared to 2020 or states out of 50 states
a decrease in percent
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increase ranged from increase compared to the
10.6% to 544.3% previous increase in 2019-
2020 except for Alaska,
Iowa, Pennsylvania,
Nebraska, Maryland,
Virginia, North Dakota,
Colorado, and Louisiana

RECOMMENDATIONS two-factor authentication on devices helps to protect the
Nowadays, most of an individual’s information and data are user’s account when the password is stolen since the criminal
online. Even though life is more convenient with the internet can’t get into the user’s account without another factor of
and online transactions, it creates opportunities for authentication, which can be a one-time password received
cybercriminals to steal and use individual’s personal by the user’s phone, fingerprint, etc. Also, users should never
information. In 2022, the FTC received more than 1.1 million provide passwords to anyone or to unsolicited requests over
reports of identity theft. The time to recover from an identity the Internet or over the phone. Users should use strong,
theft depends on the type of identity theft fraud involved. For complex, and unique passwords for each account. A password
example, if the criminal just uses a credit card without a manager can be a good solution to consider. It is necessary to
person’s authorization and does not get any other sensitive regularly review the user’s account activities for any
information, it may just be a short amount of time for the suspicious transactions. In case of falling victim, the user
person to report it and get a new credit card in his/her mail should contact the institution immediately. If sensitive
(Luthi, 2019). However, with more serious and complex information is disclosed, the user should contact the major
types of identity theft, such as using the victim’s social credit bureaus and discuss whether he/she needs to put a fraud
security number to open a new credit account, causing a tax alert on their file to prevent the cybercriminals from opening
debt, or committing crimes, it could take years for the victim an account under their name (The Office of the Comptroller
to recover from the damage (Luthi, 2019). of the Currency, n.d.)
There are several ways that people can protect Organizations should have all the secure measures
themselves from identity theft. The golden rule here is never such as intrusion detection systems, encryptions, firewalls,
to provide personal information, financial information, health etc., in place to protect the sensitive data collected from their
plan information, or any sensitive information, whether over customers. Identity theft can stem from data breaches where
the phone or the Internet, in response to a communication that customers' information is exposed or sold on the dark web to
a person did not initiate (Attorney General of Texas, n.d.). criminals. Humans are always the most vulnerable element in
Keep documents with your personal or financial information cybersecurity; therefore, regularly training employees on
in a safe place at home and work. Make sure to shred security awareness and best practices is necessary. Systems
documents that have sensitive information, such as receipts, should always be kept up to date with the latest security
loan applications, bank statements, etc., if no longer needed. patches. Also, organizations should always implement
For electronic devices that are used to store a person’s verification procedures that involve the use of sensitive
personal information, it is essential to get rid of all the information or financial transactions. It is necessary to
personal information stored in your laptop, desk- computer, conduct more campaigns educating the public about the risk
or mobile device before selling or giving away the devices of identity theft and how to protect themselves against
(Attorney General of Texas, n.d.). In addition, users need to identity theft. Collaborations among different report agencies
be aware of phishing scams. Emails and phony sites crafted are needed to share information on vulnerabilities and cyber
by cybercriminals might appear to be exactly the same as the threats. Also, cooperation between different agencies such as
real ones. Even fake websites may have a fake padlock icon Social Security administrations, the IRS, and law
that is originally used to denote a secured website (The Office enforcement is needed to help streamline the response and
of the Comptroller of the Currency, n.d.). Furthermore, recovery process. In the case of Covid-19, understanding that
individuals can sign up for an identity theft protection service, rapid response is crucial during a crisis, however, it shouldn’t
which will help with alerting, limiting the damage, and come at the expense of security. Future aid programs in
helping victims recover sooner. Identity theft protection similar situations should strive for a balance to ensure that aid
subscription will monitor credit reports, financial accounts, is distributed quickly and protected against fraudulent
medical information, dark web, etc. Identity theft protection activities. Addressing cybercrimes, especially identity theft,
companies also provide recovery services that are up to $1 requires collaborations across different sectors, including
million and access to attorneys or investigators to restore the government, financial institutions, law enforcement, and the
victim’s credit or reputation (Kinney, n.d.). Moreover, two- public, for more effective prevention and response strategies.
factor authentication plays an essential role in protecting
individuals from becoming victims of identity theft. Enabling

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