Identity Theft Hot Spots: The U.S. Cities With the Biggest Increases in Stolen Identities

Identity theft has become an all-too-common part of the digital age, with the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) reporting more than one in every five (22%) people had experienced identity theft at some point as of 2021.

With advances in technology giving identity thieves new tools to steal valuable personal information, identity theft is here to stay. And although criminals don’t discriminate when looking for identities to steal, certain factors make some people more enticing victims than others.

To find out which cities are being targeted, the All About Cookies team used government data to track the increases and decreases in identity theft in 2023.

Key findings

• Identity theft reports rose by 95% in Hartford, Connecticut, in 2023, the largest increase of any city.
• Four more cities saw identity theft reports rise by more than 50%: Des Moines, Iowa (67%); Springfield, Massachusetts (64%); Worcester, Massachusetts (64%); and Boston, Massachusetts (51%).
• Identity theft reports decreased the most in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, dropping by 65% in the last year. It’s the only city where ID theft reports decreased by more than 50%.
  

Cities with the biggest increases in identity theft

When it comes to the most common places for identity theft, one specific part of the U.S. stands out. Six of the seven cities with the highest number of ID theft reports per 100,000 people were located in two states: Connecticut and Massachusetts, with the seventh city located in nearby Maine. The remaining cities in the top 10 were located further west in Iowa, Nebraska, and Colorado.

1. Hartford, Connecticut

Identity theft cases in Hartford nearly doubled in the last year, with a 95% increase in identity theft-related claims.

Hartford also had the highest rate of ID theft reports of any city in the top 10 in 2023, with 465 incidents reported for every 100,000 people.

• ID theft cases in 2022 (per 100K residents): 238
• ID theft cases in 2023 (per 100K residents): 465
• Increase: 95%

2. Des Moines, Iowa

Des Moines is one of just two cities located in the Midwest to land in the top 10. While the city had the second-largest increase in ID theft cases year over year, the 67% increase in Des Moines was significantly smaller than the 95% increase in Hartford.

• ID theft cases in 2022 (per 100K residents): 131
• ID theft cases in 2023 (per 100K residents): 219
• Increase: 67%

3. Springfield, Massachusetts

Massachusetts has the highest

($76,600), so it isn’t surprising that multiple cities in the state are identity theft hot spots.

Springfield took the top spot among Bay State cities due to a 64% increase from 2022 to 2023.

• ID theft cases in 2022 (per 100K residents): 156
• ID theft cases in 2023 (per 100K residents): 256
• Increase: 64%

4. Worcester, Massachusetts

Located just an hour east of Springfield, identity theft cases in Worcester increased 64% year over year.

• ID theft cases in 2022 (per 100K residents): 165
• ID theft cases in 2023 (per 100K residents): 270
• Increase: 64%

5. Boston, Massachusetts

Boston is the third city in Massachusetts where identity theft rose at one of the highest rates. It’s also the Massachusetts city with the most reports per capita — 363 per 100,000 residents.

• ID theft cases in 2022 (per 100K residents): 241
• ID theft cases in 2023 (per 100K residents): 363
• Increase: 51%

6. Bridgeport, Connecticut

Bridgeport’s year over year increase in identity theft reports was the sixth-highest in 2023, increasing by 49%. Among cities where ID theft rose the most, it’s the first city where the rate of increase was less than 50%.

• ID theft cases in 2022 (per 100K residents): 245
• ID theft cases in 2023 (per 100K residents): 365
• Increase: 49%

7. New Haven, Connecticut

The final Connecticut city in these rankings, New Haven is best known for the style of pizza invented in and named after the city.

However, locals and visitors alike may want to keep their information secure next time they grab a slice, as ID theft reports in the city increased by 43% in 2023.

• ID theft cases in 2022 (per 100K residents): 242
• ID theft cases in 2023 (per 100K residents): 345
• Increase: 43%

8. Omaha, Nebraska

Omaha is the second (and final) Midwest city in the top 10. Cases in the city increased by 32% in 2023.

• ID theft cases in 2022 (per 100K residents): 130
• ID theft cases in 2023 (per 100K residents): 171
• Increase: 32%

9. Portland, Maine

Portland is the seventh city in the Northeastern part of the U.S. to have one of the biggest increases in identity theft in 2023.

A key reason scammers may target this part of the country is that the average salary in the Northeast ($65,383) is the highest, nearly $5,000 higher than any other region.

• ID theft cases in 2022 (per 100K residents): 127
• ID theft cases in 2023 (per 100K residents): 160
• Increase: 26%

10. Denver, Colorado

Denver is the only city in the top 10 located in the Western region of the country.

From 2022 to 2023, the number of identity theft reports in Denver increased by more than 40 additional reports per 100,000 people.

• ID theft cases in 2022 (per 100K residents): 210
• ID theft cases in 2023 (per 100K residents): 252
• Increase: 20%

Nationwide identity theft trends

While the top 10 cities represent the places where identity theft has been an increasing problem recently, what does the problem look like on a larger scale?

To find out, we used ID theft reports and population data from hundreds of U.S. cities to track changes per capita over time.

From 2019 to 2023, the number of identity theft reports per 100,000 people increased by 48%.

It’s not all bad news, however, as identity theft reports decreased in 2022 and 2023 after reaching a five-year high of 427 reports per 100,000 people in 2021. In 2023, the rate fell by 9%.

Cities with the biggest decreases in identity theft

Since identity theft reports are falling overall, we wanted to find which cities have seen the largest drops over the past year.

1. Baton Rouge, Louisiana

Baton Rouge is the only city where ID theft reports dropped by more than 40%, falling 65% year over year.

While that decrease is encouraging, part of the reason the change is so dramatic is that Baton Rouge had the highest rate of identity theft reports in the country in 2022, at 974 per 100,000 residents. This means even a relatively high per-capita rate of 341 reports in 2023 is still a major improvement.

• ID theft cases in 2022 (per 100K residents): 974
• ID theft cases in 2023 (per 100K residents): 341
• Decrease: 65%

2. Greensboro, North Carolina

Greensboro is one of two North Carolina cities where ID theft dropped the most, with a 39% decrease from 2022 to 2023.

• ID theft cases in 2022 (per 100K residents): 357
• ID theft cases in 2023 (per 100K residents): 217
• Decrease: 39%

3. Fayetteville, Arkansas

Fayetteville’s 2022 ID theft report rate was 190 per 100,000 residents, the lowest of any city on this list, and that rate dropped even lower in 2023 to 123 reports.

• ID theft cases in 2022 (per 100K residents): 190
• ID theft cases in 2023 (per 100K residents): 123
• Decrease: 35%

4. Columbia, South Carolina

Columbia had the second-highest rate of ID theft reports on this list in 2022 (535 per 100,000 people). By dropping that number to 354 reports, the city’s ID theft report rate decreased by 34%.

• ID theft cases in 2022 (per 100K residents): 535
• ID theft cases in 2023 (per 100K residents): 354
• Decrease: 34%

5. New Orleans, Louisiana

The Big Easy is the second city in Louisiana in the top five, along with Baton Rouge in first place.

ID theft decreased by 33% in NOLA, going from 480 cases per 100,000 people in 2022 to 320 reports in 2023.

• ID theft cases in 2022 (per 100K residents): 480
• ID theft cases in 2023 (per 100K residents): 320
• Decrease: 33%

6. Birmingham, Alabama

Another city with a 30% decrease in ID theft reports year-over-year, Birmingham is the only city in Alabama to appear on either list.

• ID theft cases in 2022 (per 100K residents): 414
• ID theft cases in 2023 (per 100K residents): 289
• Decrease: 30%

7. Jackson, Mississippi

Mississippi has the lowest average annual salary in the country at $45,150. That’s more than $30,000 less than the average salary in Massachusetts, which may be why ID thieves target people living in the Bay State more than Missisippians.

• ID theft cases in 2022 (per 100K residents): 342
• ID theft cases in 2023 (per 100K residents): 239
• Decrease: 30%

8. McAllen, Texas

Located in the very southern tip of Texas near the U.S.-Mexico border, McAllen is the final of three cities separated by mere decimal points in these rankings, joined Birmingham and Jackson as cities where identity theft reports dropped by 30% in 2023.

• ID theft cases in 2022 (per 100K residents): 254
• ID theft cases in 2023 (per 100K residents): 179
• Decrease: 30%

9. Memphis, Tennessee

In 2023, Memphis had a rate of 368 ID theft reports for every 100,000 people. While that represents a 28% decrease from the previous year, it’s still the second highest per-capita rate of any top city.

• ID theft cases in 2022 (per 100K residents): 513
• ID theft cases in 2023 (per 100K residents): 368
• Decrease: 28%

10. Winston-Salem, North Carolina

Winston-Salem is the final city where identity theft decreased the most and the second city from North Carolina to earn that distinction.

• ID theft cases in 2022 (per 100K residents): 234
• ID theft cases in 2023 (per 100K residents): 169
• Decrease: 28%

City-by-city breakdown of ID theft report cases in the U.S.

Below you can find the change in ID theft reports per city, ordered alphabetically.

Tips for keeping your identity safe online

Despite the prevalence of identity theft, you can still take plenty of steps to help ensure your identity and personal information stay safe online.

• Learn about PII. Your personally identifiable information (PII) can include details like your name, address, or Social Security number (SSN). This information can reveal your identity to online criminals if compromised.
• Recognize ID theft signs. Knowing the early signs of identity theft can help you recognize what’s going on much sooner if your information is stolen, so you can recover much quicker.
• Actively monitor your identity with ID theft protection software. With so much of your information online, ID theft software can help keep an eye on your information so bad actors don’t use it maliciously.

Methodology

All About Cookies examined data from the Federal Trade Commission’s 2022 and 2023 Consumer Sentinel Network Data Books to find the reported number of identity theft incidents per 100,000 people in more than 100 of the biggest U.S. cities.

We then calculated the year-over-year change to determine the cities with the biggest increases and decreases in ID theft from 2019 to 2023.

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Author Details

Josh Koebert

About the Author

Josh Koebert is an experienced content marketer that loves exploring how tech overlaps with topics such as sports, food, pop culture, and more. His work has been featured on sites such as CNN, ESPN, Business Insider, and Lifehacker.