An Identity That Only You Can Use is Not a Luxury: How AI, Fraud & Scams Are Putting Everyone’s Information at Greater Risk

By Eva Velasquez, CEO, Identity Theft Resource Center

“The secret of change is to focus all of your energy, not on fighting the old, but on building the new.” — Socrates

As we look back on 2025, Socrates’ words have never felt more relevant. The latter half of the year brought a seismic shift in our landscape, driven by the rapid evolution of generative artificial intelligence (AI) and a new administration’s shifting priorities. While we must respect the 26-year history of the Identity Theft Resource Center (ITRC) and the foundational values that make us a trusted guide, we cannot simply fight against the tide of change. We must focus our energy on building the “new”—a future where our defenses are as sophisticated as the threats they face. A new future that goes beyond awareness.

While building awareness has long been a focus in our industry, we must not stop there. Awareness is not an outcome; it is a tool we use to achieve meaningful outcomes. At the ITRC, we are not a “think tank” (although we are thoughtful people) only theorizing about the impact of these shifts; we are a “do tank” dedicated to the hard, daily work of making victims whole and making the identity ecosystem more resilient.

The “Do Tank” in Action

In 2025, we revamped our vision and mission to reflect this clarity of purpose. Our vision is simple: A world where nobody can use my identity but me. Our mission: To prevent and reduce the impact of identity theft, fraud & scams. We occupy a unique space in the ecosystem, sitting at the intersection of a 50,000-foot systemic view and the deeply personal, individual experience. This vantage point allows us to see how data breaches—of which we maintain the largest repository in the U.S., with over 23,000 notices—serve as the raw fuel for the crimes we fight every day.

This unique position allows us to do what no other organization can: connect the data used to perpetrate identity misuse, fraud & scams to the human stories that follow. By witnessing the immediate, real-world consequences of systemic failures on an individual, we can provide businesses and policymakers with the ground-level truth needed to build more empathetic and effective defenses.

The Risk of an Identity Underclass

Identities have been intertwined with every facet of modern life for years; like the frog in the proverbial pot, most of us didn’t realize the risks until the water was boiling. Regular events like filing taxes, logging onto financial accounts and even booking a rideshare all leverage our identities. 

Bringing AI into the mix did not alter this fact, but it did further highlight a dangerous reality: our systems and technologies move far more quickly than most people can adopt. The well-resourced can outsource this complexity to paid experts, the tech-savvy can adapt to it, but most people cannot do either. We must prioritize resources and assistance for everyone who needs help protecting or restoring their identities, or we risk creating a permanent identity underclass. We believe an unencumbered identity is a right, not a luxury.

To ensure this underclass does not become a permanent fixture, we focused on our ‘do tank’ approach—not only assisting victims directly but also expanding our reach within the entire recovery ecosystem through trauma-informed training. This commitment to tangible outcomes is evident in the specific impacts we achieved this year:

Measurable Impact Across the Ecosystem

Our impact is measured in the lives of everyone we serve, reflecting both our history and our adaptation to new threats:

• Empowering the Most Vulnerable: We have deepened our commitment to specialized recovery services for survivors of human trafficking, domestic violence and foster youth—individuals for whom a stolen identity is often a barrier to basic necessities like housing and employment.
• Accessible Support: We meet folks where they are, ensuring our staff is trained, and our services are accessible to the Blind/Low Vision and Deaf/Hard of Hearing communities. We provide multiple pathways to access our services, including a toll-free hotline staffed by carbon-based lifeforms (not AI agents) for those who cannot make effective use of web-based/digital-only help.
• Force Multipliers for Law Enforcement: We train law enforcement officers to identify and address secondary victimization and provide a formal referral to ITRC victim advisors at no cost to the agency. This allows investigators to focus on the criminals while we focus on the victim’s recovery.
• The Identity-Scam Connection: We have long understood the identity component of fraud; in fact, scams now represent most of the identity compromises reported to us. We provide customized, one-on-one recovery plans free of charge to help victims navigate the complex remediation process for scams and custom risk minimization plans to reduce future victimization.
• Increasing Our Reach: We launched the Certified Identity Recovery Specialist (CIRS) program to other organizations to train their contact center teams in trauma-informed support, ensuring victims receive expert care even outside the ITRC.

The Impact of Answering the Call

The statistics in this year’s Consumer Impact Report are sobering. We see a rise in the severity of financial harm, with more than 35 percent of ITRC victims reporting losses exceeding $10,000. A staggering 11 percent lost more than $1 million.

Most alarmingly, our 2025 survey revealed that 67.8 percent of victims in the general population have seriously considered self-harm as a direct result of having their identities misused. These are not just data points; they are a call to action.

Our impact is found in the “lifeline” we provide. While general population victims struggle in isolation, ITRC victims—who have access to our structured, expert-led support—reported a significantly lower rate of such extreme despair (14 percent). That is still too high for a society with the expertise and resources available to individuals in need.

A Call to Join Us

None of this work is possible without the financial resources to sustain it. As we look toward 2026, we face a critical shift as government grant funding for many programs has ceased, and a primary Office of Victims of Crime grant is set to expire in late 2026.

I invite you to be part of our impact. Whether through a financial donation to sustain our free services, a corporate sponsorship or by lending your expertise as a board member, your engagement ensures that when someone is in despair, we are there to answer the call.

The people being harmed are real, and so is their pain. Our response must be urgent and compassionate.