How worried do you need to be about identity theft in NJ? Here's how the states rank

Scammers and hackers continue to be a threat as technology advances, but are we in New Jersey more or less safe from identity theft than people in other parts of the country?

Cloudwards, a website that provides insights on cloud and security software from its experts, came out with an extensive report on identity theft risk by state. It lists the states that are the most and least at risk of identity theft.

New Jersey ranks as the 12th-most dangerous state when it comes to identity theft according to the list. The Garden State has 283 identity theft reports per 100,000 people according to the website's data.

New Jersey saw a 9% drop in identity theft reports from 2022 to 2023 according to the report. In the Federal Trade Commission's 2022 Consumer Sentinel Network Data Book , New Jersey had 28,712 identity theft reports in 2022, ranking 13th in the country at the time. In the Federal Trade Commission's 2023 data gatherings , New Jersey had 26,136 identity theft reports.

The states and districts most at risk of identity theft reports according to Cloudwards:

Areas most at risk of identity theft

1. Washington, D.C.
2. Massachusetts
3. Connecticut
4. Nevada
5. Pennsylvania

The states with the least risk of identity theft according to the analysis:

1. Tennessee
2. Montana
3. New Mexico
4. Utah
5. Kentucky

Identity theft stats

The Federal Trade Commission sees identity theft as an alarming problem as its data shows in 2023 over 1 million people reported an issue with identity theft, although there was a slight decrease in reports from 2022.

Georgia was the state with the most identity theft complaints. Even though nationally identity theft reports saw a slight decline from 1.1 million to 1.0 million, many states saw an increase such as Connecticut, which saw a 69.91% hike.

Credit card fraud was the most rampant form of identity theft according to the report. The FTC received 416,582 reports from people who said their information was misused with an existing credit card or when applying for a new one.

Methodology

Cloudward looked at identity theft reports per 100,000 residents and the total number of identity theft reports for each state with data from the Federal Trade Commission.

The company also took into consideration the change in identity theft reports to see if states had an increase or decrease from the previous year.

The technology experts also took into consideration the presence of identity theft laws in each state. The analysists gave the states positive points for their ranking if they had identity theft laws, data privacy laws, state-specific data disposal laws and laws addressing phishing and security freeze laws for minor’s credit reports.

New Jersey is one of the states with data privacy laws and state specific data disposal laws, but no identity theft passport laws according to the Cloudward ranking.

Identity theft prevention tips

Cloudward offers a brief guide to ensure your protection against identity theft.

Its experts advise to not carry your social security card in your wallet, update your bank, email and other passwords regularly, limit your social media posting, use a VPN and be alert of phishing scams.

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: How worried do you need to be about identity theft in NJ? Here's how the states rank