Identity theft has surged across the United States over the past six months as the country has felt the effects of the coronavirus pandemic, becoming the most popular scam reported to the government.

The Federal Trade Commission announced the rise in identify theft, with reported incidents surpassing 349,000 in the second quarter of 2020 with nearly one-quarter of theft incidents related to benefits fraud. The spike is due to an uptick in fraudulent unemployment applications in which con artists filed requests for government financial assistance using other people’s names who were not out of work.

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