Identity theft incidents that targeted older consumers in 2021 nearly doubled year-over-year, according to a new report from Aite-Novarica Group.

In “U.S. Identity Theft in 2021: Adapting and Evolving,” Aite-Novarica Group found that 25 percent of U.S. consumers age 55 and older experienced identity theft last year, up from 12 percent in 2020. With consumers in this age group creating new digital accounts, Aite-Novarica Group said in a statement, that they might have been less prepared to protect their data against identity theft scams.

Identity theft across all age groups affected 25 percent of U.S. adults, down slightly from 2020, when 27 percent of adults experienced identity theft. Aite-Novarica Group, a Boston-based research and advisory firm, found that identity theft last year had shifted back to consumer financial products after 2020 saw government stimulus payments as a top target.

Commissioned by GIACT, a Refinitiv company, the research found high rates of identity theft that included application fraud and account takeover.

Of the consumers who had an account taken over, 25 percent experienced a fraudulent peer-to-peer transfer, the second most common type of account takeover, Aite-Novarica Group said.

And these consumers were less satisfied with the recovery process compared to other types of account takeover fraud. The report found that 63 percent of consumers affected by peer-to-peer payment fraud were satisfied with the recovery process compared to 82 percent of consumers who were satisfied with the recovery process for credit card fraud.

The research also found that buy now, pay later programs have emerged as a new target for application fraud. While application fraud continues to affect checking accounts, credit cards and mobile phone accounts most frequently, Aite-Novaria Group found that 23 percent of those impacted by application fraud schemes were targeted through BNPL payments.

“The methods fraudsters use to commit identity theft continue to evolve and grow more sophisticated,” Shirley Inscoe, strategic advisor at Aite-Novarica Group and author of the new report, said in the statement. “Firms should review and enhance current application controls and Know Your Customer processes to protect customers against identity theft. This will help reduce fraud losses and improve regulatory compliance as well.”

Identity theft is also leading to more reputational risk as consumers have become less tolerant of financial institutions that allow fraud to take place, the statement said. Among consumers affected by loan application fraud, 41 percent said they were unlikely or extremely unlikely to do business with the financial institution that allowed the fraud to take place. This was up from 20 percent in 2020.

Some consumers had already moved their accounts, with 31 percent of account takeover victims saying they moved their account to another financial institution because of the fraud.