The free credit-monitoring website WalletHub released a report Oct. 17 on 2018’s States Most Vulnerable to Identity Theft & Fraud, and ranked Maine as among the least vulnerable states to identity theft and fraud.
The Pine Tree State ranked among the five states with the fewest identity-theft complaints per capita. The state with the fewest was Hawaii, followed by South Dakota, Vermont, Iowa and Maine.
The five states ranking highest in identity theft and fraud were the District of Columbia, Michigan, Florida, California and Maryland.
To determine where Americans are most susceptible to such crimes, WalletHub compared the 50 states and the District of Columbia across 10 key metrics. The data set ranges from identity-theft complaints per capita to average loss amount due to fraud.
In other data on Maine’s vulnerability to identity theft and fraud (1 equals most vulnerable and 25 is average), Maine was 44th in average loss amount due to online identity theft; 43rd in fraud and other complaints per capita; 30th in median loss amount due to fraud; 27th in people arrested for fraud per capita; and 18th for state security-freeze laws for minors’ credit reports.
For the full report, please visit:
https://wallethub.com/edu/states-where-identity-theft-and-fraud-are-worst/17549/.
