Credit Card Fraud in Numbers—Crucial Credit Card Fraud Statistics for 2024
Credit cards offer convenience, flexibility, and the ability to earn rewards—but only when you use them responsibly. Misuse and negligence can leave you vulnerable to fraud, which continues to be a prevalent threat and can be devastating for your wallet, reputation, and well-being.
To demonstrate the importance of being a conscientious credit cardholder, this article will present recent U.S. credit card fraud statistics and answer questions such as:
- Is credit card fraud on the rise?
- What's the cost of credit card fraud?
- In which states and groups is credit card fraud most common?
- What can you do to prevent credit card fraud?
What Is Credit Card Fraud and How Does It Happen?
Credit card fraud refers to the unauthorized use of credit cards and credit card information. It can take many different forms:
- Physical theft—The fraudster steals the credit card from the victim.
- Skimming/shimming—The fraudster installs a special device on a public card reader, capturing the victim's card information.
- Imposter scam—The fraudster pretends to be an authority figure, such as a government official, then convinces the victim to send them money or share sensitive information. Then, they use that information to commit unauthorized purchases.
- Account takeover—The fraudster enters the victim's online accounts and changes the settings so the victim can't access them anymore.
- Application fraud—The fraudster applies for credit or loans using the victim's personal information.
How Prevalent Is Credit Card Fraud?
In its Consumer Sentinel Network Data Book 2023 report, the Federal Trade Commission shared that it received over 471,488 payment-related fraud reports in 2022, 114,348 of which involved credit cards[1].
The report also states that there were 416,582 reports of credit card-related identity theft[1]. Credit cards remain the most prevalent category of identity theft in the U.S., making up almost half of all identity theft reports (1,036,903)[1].
Security.org's 2023 Credit Card Fraud Report revealed that 65% of U.S. adults have experienced a fraudulent card charge at least once, which amounts to around 151 million individuals[3]. The percentage of people who've experienced credit card fraud more than once has also increased. In 2022, 44% of credit cardholders claimed to have been charged fraudulently two or more times, whereas 35% claimed so in 2021[3].
Which Types of Credit Card Fraud Are Most Common?
The 2023 FTC report highlighted that the leading type of credit card-related identity theft is New Accounts[1], which involves the use of the victim's personal information to open new credit card accounts. Out of 416,582 reports, 381,122 were for New Accounts[1]. The remaining reports pertained to the Existing Accounts category, which represents unauthorized charges made to the victim's existing account[1].
The same report reveals that imposter scams remain the leading category of fraud[1]. In 2022, they comprised 853,935 out of 2,566,261 reports[1], whereas the 2023 figures were 725,989 and 2,369,527[2] respectively.
Meanwhile, Insider Intelligence's 2022 findings indicate that card-not-present (CNP) fraud has been on a steady rise since 2019[4]. It's expected to make up 74% of total card payment fraud loss in 2024[4].
The table below breaks down the reported and estimated figures throughout the five years:
Account takeover seems to be growing in popularity as well. According to Security.org's most recent Account Takeover Report, 29% of U.S. adults have had their online accounts appropriated in 2023, marking an increase from the 2021 report's 22%[5]. Around 53% of those takeovers occurred with social media accounts, and 42% occurred with banking accounts[5].
How Much Does Credit Card Fraud Cost?
Below, you can learn about the cost of credit card fraud and other related statistics:
- Global vs. U.S. payment card fraud—The Nilson Report reveals that payment card fraud worldwide in 2022 resulted in $33.45 billion in losses, 40.69% of which stemmed from the U.S. alone[6].
- Credit card fraud—The FTC reports that consumers lost $246 million to credit card fraud in 2022[1].
- Median fraud charge—The median fraudulent charge, which was $62 in 2021, has increased by 27% and reached $79 in 2022[3].
- Card-not-present fraud—In 2022, card-not-present fraud was responsible for 72% of all payment card fraud losses, which amounted to $8.75 billion[4].
Which Individuals and Regions Are Most Affected by Credit Card Fraud?
As per the FTC's report, the age group most affected by credit card-related identity fraud in 2022 was 30–39 year-olds[1]. They made up 122,246 reports out of 416,582[1]. Other highly impacted groups included:
- 40–49 year-olds with 84,604 reports
- 20–29 year-olds with 71,900 reports
- 50–59 year-olds with 53,438 reports
Security.org has recognized that card fraud victims often[3]:
- Used the same card for everyday spending and autopay
- Saved credit card information in their web browsers
Location-wise, Georgia had the most fraud reports per 100,000 people in the first quarter of 2023, whereas California had the highest number of reports in general[7]. Forbes crunched all the numbers and singled out the five states most impacted by financial scams[7]:
What You Can Do To Prevent Credit Card Fraud
To reduce the chance of credit card fraud happening to you, you should set strong and unique passwords and enable multi-factor authentication to make it more difficult for hackers to access your accounts. It's also advisable to turn on transaction and security alerts so you can detect unauthorized transactions and other security issues quickly.
If someone calls, messages, or emails you with an urgent request to send money or disclose sensitive information, you should ignore it, even if the sender seems credible at first glance. Such requests are usually scam attempts as official institutions will never ask for payments or information in this way.
When shopping online, you should avoid public Wi-Fi networks and sketchy websites as using them can lead to your credit card information being intercepted by hackers.
Virtual cards are a popular choice for shopping online without exposing your information. You can link virtual cards to a regular funding source and make purchases as usual, but your payment details will be masked with random card numbers at checkout. If you use a virtual card, your actual financial information will be shielded from hackers in case of a data breach on a merchant's website.
With an independent virtual card provider such as Privacy, you can enjoy many other features to protect and streamline your payments.
Shield Your Transactions With Privacy Virtual Cards
Trusted by over 250,000 users, Privacy is a virtual card service that gives you comprehensive control over your online payments. It abides by the same security standards as your bank, protecting your account with two-factor authentication (2FA) and transaction monitoring. You can also enable transaction alerts to get notified whenever your cards are used or declined.
You only need to connect your bank account or debit card, and you can start generating virtual cards, choosing between:
- Single-Use Cards—When you want to shop on a new or lesser-known website, you can create a Single-Use Card. This card becomes invalid shortly after you complete the first purchase, so it won't be of any use to potential hackers who breach the website.
- Merchant-Locked Cards—Since it only allows transactions with one merchant, the Merchant-Locked Card is ideal for your favorite shopping spots and subscription services. If hackers get hold of its numbers, they won't be able to use them anywhere else.
Privacy Cards also allow you to set spending limits. Privacy will block all charges that exceed the limit, protecting you against merchants who may attempt to charge you more than the agreed price. You can also pause or close your card, and Privacy will decline further charges.
How To Set Up and Use Privacy
To start securing your transactions with Privacy, take the following steps:
- Create your Privacy account
- Provide the information needed to verify your identity
- Link a debit card or bank account
- Request and generate your virtual cards
Since Privacy Cards are issued by Visa® and Mastercard®, you can use them with most U.S. merchants and websites that accept these payment methods, including eBay, AliExpress, Amazon, and Netflix.
Privacy's Personal plan is free for domestic transactions and it comes with 12 virtual cards a month and the above-listed card controls. It also includes access to the Privacy Browser Extension and mobile app.
The browser extension enables fast and seamless checkouts—it autofills your virtual card numbers, saving you from having to reach for your wallet to get your card or memorize card numbers. It's available for Chrome, Firefox, Edge, Safari, and Safari iOS if you're on an iPhone or iPad. The Privacy App lets you generate and manage your virtual cards from your Android or iOS device.
Privacy has two other plans—Pro ($10/month) and Premium($25/month), which unlock benefits such as fee-free foreign transactions, priority support, and 1% cashback on eligible purchases (totaling up to $4,500 a month).
References
[1] The Federal Trade Commission. Consumer Sentinel Network Data Book 2023. https://www.ftc.gov/system/files/ftc_gov/pdf/CSN-Annual-Data-Book-2023.pdf, February 2024
[2] The Federal Trade Commission. Consumer Sentinel Network Data Book 2022. https://www.ftc.gov/system/files/ftc_gov/pdf/CSN-Data-Book-2022.pdf, February 2023
[3] Security.org. https://www.security.org/digital-safety/credit-card-fraud-report/, January 31, 2023
[4] Sara Lebow. Insider Intelligence. https://www.insiderintelligence.com/content/card-not-present-fraud-payment, January 23, 2023
[5] Brett Cruz. Security.org. https://www.security.org/digital-safety/account-takeover-annual-report/, updated January 17, 2024
[6] Nilson Report. https://nilsonreport.com/newsletters/1254/, December 2023
[7] Natalie Campisi. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/advisor/credit-cards/most-scammed-states-in-america/, updated August 4, 2023
