Michigan Top 10 States Most Vulnerable to ID Theft/Fraud
This year has been full of data breaches and sometimes data breaches can be worse in certain places and also certain states can be more prone to them.
Wallethub has just come out with a new chart where they breakdown the states where they are most prone to breaches and where it is worse. Michigan ranked 8th in the identity theft category which compares complaints per state and average loss amount. Michigan was also 12th in the fraud category which shows how often fraud can happen in the state and on other Michiganders. In addition, Michigan is 2nd overall in identity theft complaints and 4th overall in fraud complaints.
But there are several ways to combat Identity Theft and Fraud
- Make sure your email password is strong. This will help when you need to remember passwords or set up new accounts. Its so easy to think of a great password and it will help you in the future cause an ID theft often occurs starting with email.
- Have alerts for your accounts or setting up online management for all of your financial accounts (e.g., credit cards, loans, Social Security), and keeping your phone number, email address and street address up to date will make them harder to hack
- Don't open up emails you don't know. This should be known but don't do this as this one of the easiest ways someone will steal your info.
You can read more about ID theft and how to combat it here. Plus more stats on ID theft and fraud in Michigan.