Identity Theft Threats and Prevention Tips for 2025
Eva Velasquez, President and CEO of the Identity Theft Resource Center (ITRC), anticipates several key identity theft trends for 2025. In a discussion with Kiplinger, Velasquez outlined the most prevalent schemes and provided advice on how to safeguard your personal information.
Rising Identity Theft Schemes
According to recent contact center data from the ITRC, scams account for a significant portion of identity theft incidents. “Our most recent contact center data shows that 51% of personally identifiable information (PII) compromises … come from scams,” Velasquez stated. The most common types include impersonation and employment scams.
Impersonation Scams: Scammers are increasingly posing as representatives of legitimate organizations, like Amazon or credit card companies. They often contact individuals directly, purporting to have issues with a delivery or questioning a recent purchase.
Employment Scams: Fraudulent job postings on platforms like Indeed and LinkedIn are on the rise, as are unsolicited messages and emails from fake recruiters.
Anticipated Trends and Persistent Threats
While predicting specific events remains challenging, Velasquez points out that scammers often exploit global events to their advantage. “It’s hard to predict the next global event, such as a pandemic or natural disaster, but that’s what the scammers love to leverage,” she explained. These situations create opportunities to request money or information from individuals who are often under-informed and vulnerable.
Business Impersonation: Scammers are likely to continue to impersonate legitimate businesses. According to Velasquez, this is due to the ease with which stolen personal information can be purchased on the dark web, allowing criminals to appear credible when contacting victims.
Social Media Account Takeovers: Hacking into social media accounts enables scammers to contact victims’ connections and request donations or information. Insufficient responses from social media companies to such takeovers mean more and more accounts are compromised.
Strategies for Self-Protection
To mitigate the risk of identity theft, Velasquez recommends a proactive and cautious approach to all digital communication. “Approach all digital communication with skepticism,” she advised. If you did not initiate contact with an entity requesting information or money, independently verify the request through the original source.
- Verify Contacts: If you receive a call purportedly from your credit card company, use the number on the back of your card to call them directly. If a utility company contacts you, find their official phone number online. Check your Amazon account’s message center if you receive an email or text about your Amazon orders.
- Secure Devices: Recognizing that devices such as smartphones are as valuable as wallets, implement security measures: Enable lock screens, and use biometric authentication, location detection, and the ability to remotely delete information.
- Consider a Credit Freeze: Freezing your credit is one of the most effective actions to prevent fraud.
Responding to Data Breaches
In the event of a data breach, swift action is crucial. The initial step is to determine what specific data was compromised. “The most important first step is to understand what specific data of yours was compromised,” Velasquez noted. If your username and password were stolen, changing them immediately on all impacted accounts is vital. The ITRC website provides a free tool that allows users to check a company’s breach history. You can also sign up for alerts to be notified of future breaches.
