A report by Temecula and the Identity Theft Resource Center looked into identity theft trends. The report indicates identity thieves are getting better at using social engineering techniques to convince people to share personal, financial and important business information.

The report found 80% of identity compromises were due to a scam, a 3% increase from the previous year. Of those scams, a majority (61%) of people researched reported being the victims of a Google Voice scam.

Other trends found in the report involve:

• Of total crimes reported to the, 55% were due to compromised credentials, 40% were due to misused credentials, 3% requested prevention and 1% reported attempted misuse of credentials.
• Of the 7% of federal accounts that were misused 78% were due to IRS accounts.
• Misused social media accounts made up 72% of non-government and non-financial account abuse.
• For the misuse of stolen information, a majority reported account takeover (61%) versus new account creation (32%).
• An increase in reports of Social Security numbers being misused to gain employment and used by individuals committing crimes.
• An increase in identity thieves using driver’s license information to get fraudulent auto loans, open new bank accounts and cell phone accounts.
• A surge in the number of people requesting information on how to help prevent identity theft.

The report also lists the top five states for identity scams including:

• California
• Texas
• New York
• Florida
• Pennsylvania