Javelin Strategy & Research
Coverage of Javelin Strategy & Research in the Nexus archive.
- You have a credit freeze. It still isn’t enough
Credit freezes, while free since 2018, are insufficient to fully protect against identity fraud. The 2026 Identity Fraud Study reports $27.3 billion in losses and a 31% rise in new-account fraud, with synthetic identity fraud exploiting gaps by combining real SSNs with fake identities. Credit freezes fail to block these attacks, as they bypass traditional credit file checks.
- Why last year's breach is this year's identity fraud
Identity fraud is rising in the United States, with consumers losing $27.3 billion to traditional identity fraud in 2025, and breach notices becoming a regular part of life. The Identity Theft Resource Center logged a record 3,322 U.S. data compromises in 2025. Stolen identity records often take time to turn into fraud, with data being sold and resold through criminal markets.