Two Separate Tracks: Identity Theft vs. Dollar Losses, Illinois
Identity theft reports spiked during the pandemic and then fell sharply. Dollar losses never came down — they have climbed every year regardless of report counts.
Identity Theft Reports
117,058 → 59,249
Peaked in 2021 driven by pandemic fraud; declined sharply, then rose again by 2025
Total Reported Dollar Losses
$130.5M → $362.8M
Increased every single year from 2021 to 2025, nearly tripling over the period
Identity Theft Reports (left axis)
Total Reported Losses in $M (right axis)
What happened in 2021? Illinois saw 117,058 identity theft reports — 922 per 100,000 residents — mostly tied to pandemic-era relief fraud: unemployment scams, stimulus check schemes, and government benefits fraud. By 2022, identity theft reports fell 64% to 42,555. But dollar losses kept climbing on an entirely separate track, suggesting that while opportunistic pandemic fraud faded, more sophisticated and costly scams took its place.
Visualization by Sahil Shimpi. Data sources: FTC Consumer Sentinel Network Data Books, 2021–2024; FTC Explore Data dashboard (2025 data). Identity theft report figures for 2023 and 2024 are approximate, within the 39,000–43,000 range cited in FTC data. All figures based on voluntarily filed consumer reports.