Nevada State Lands Really High On List For Identity Theft
Well, this is discouraging for Nevada residents, though not completely unexpected. A recent study just analyzed all the states in the country and compared their vulnerability to identity theft and fraud. And the Silver State landed in the top five.
This isn’t as much a shock now as it might have been a year ago. Partially because of the major fraud that happened at several Las Vegas casinos in August 2023. That was when a cyber attack lead to the theft of personal information belonging to local residents. The identity theft happened at the Nevada properties of Caesars Entertainment and MGM, theregister.com reported.
As a resident of Nevada, I was officially panicking when I heard that the hack happened. I am a rewards member at one of these casino properties. Which means my social security number and other legal information was very possibly part of what was stolen. For the entire time residents waited for the attack to be resolved, I didn’t use my credit or debit card. I kept them frozen and paid cash for everything.
And the recent MOVEit data breach targeted an even wider audience. Which compelled the personal-finance experts at WalletHub to compare states according to their vulnerability to such financial attacks. Specifically, which states are most vulnerable to identity theft and fraud. They compared things like the number of fraud complaints per 100,000 residents and the average amount lost from online identity theft.
Here are the top states in the country that are most vulnerable to identity theft and fraud, and where Nevada compares.
The result of Wallethub’s study revealed Nevada is in the top five of states most vulnerable to these kinds of crimes. We tied for fifth for the most identity theft-related complaints per capita. And Nevada came in fourth for the number of fraud complaints per capita. We also tied for fifth for the highest average amount of money lost due to fraud. The only states more vulnerable than Nevada, according to this study, are Florida, Delaware and the District of Columbia. Which came third, second and first, respectively.
Of course, there are ways to better protect your identity, regardless of which state you live in. Including using credit cards that monitor for fraud and watching what you download on your personal devices. You can get more ideas on how to protect yourself, and get a full report of this study, at Wallethub.com.