Identity thieves have in recent years narrowed in on a particularly lucrative target: athletes on the verge of going pro.
A report from the fraud detection company SentiLink found that NBA and NFL draft picks from a recent five-year period were far likelier than the average American to be victims of attempted financial fraud such as fake loans and credit cards taken out in their names.
The figures have risen dramatically from 2020 through 2025. Of the NBA draft picks from that period, 20% saw suspicious credit activity such as credit card applications, and attempted auto and consumer lending loan applications. For NFL picks in the period, the figure was 15.2%. The national average is usually between 2-3%, the report found.
The data only flags suspicious attempts to take out loans and does not track confirmed instances of identity theft.
"Most draft prospects are young adults, typically 18–23 years old. This demographic often has limited credit histories, fewer active financial accounts, and inconsistent digital footprints," the report found.
"These characteristics make them ideal targets because fraudulent applications are less likely to trigger alerts associated with established credit behavior, and there is often less public information available to contradict a fraudulent application," it said.
The rise in identity fraud efforts around young athletes coincides with a national trend. While there are no comprehensive figures on how many Americans become victims each year, complaints to the Federal Trade Commission have risen nearly every year since it started tracking them in 2001,culminating in a record 6.5 million last year..
James Lee, the president of the Identity Theft Resource Center, a nonprofit that helps Americans deal with identity theft, said young athletes make sense as targets.
"Professional athletes who are early in their careers make for easy targets because they are highly visible, are suddenly wealthy, but may not have the same level of personal protection and life skills to avoid being taken advantage of by professional criminals," said Lee, who was not involved in the study.
Trying to open a credit card or take out a bank loan in another person's name often require little more than some basic information about that person, such as their name, current address, birthday and family. It usually also requires a Social Security Number, but those are hacked and traded by cybercriminals so frequently that they're relatively easy to acquire.
Athletes competing to go pro are heavily scrutinized and generally see little expectation of privacy. Their names, ages and basic biographical and family information are widely plastered across sports websites, and they often publicly advertise on social media. And the fact that they are likely to frequently move among their home, college, training camps and the city where they're drafted means they may be less likely to see mailed credit alerts.
The attempts also echo aspate of home burglariesthat have plagued both leagues in recent years, particularly targeting them while they're playing in high-profile away games. Victims include NFL stars such as Patrick Mahomes, Travis Kelce and Shedeur Sanders and NBA stars such asShai Gilgeous-AlexanderandLuka Doncic. The FBI is helping investigate the break-ins for potential ties to international crime rings, NBC Newsreported last week. The agency did not respond when asked if it was also tracking identity thieves who target athletes.
SentiLink works with banks and other financial services to flag suspicious transactions and has a massive database of credit activity. Researchers at the company looked at the 1,292 NFL players drafted from 2020 to 2024, as well as the 288 NBA players drafted in that same period, and compared them to national averages.
David Maimon, SentiLink's head of fraud insight and the lead researcher on the study told NBC News that the data does not indicate a widespread organized criminal conspiracy and seems more like a phenomenon of more amateur criminals trying to take advantage of newly famous young men. He declined to share the names of which players have been particularly targeted, citing confidentiality agreements.
Most identity theft attempts are not made public. But they can be amateur and brazen, while others can use modern technology and manipulation techniques.
Some loan applications ask for a person to record a live video and move their head to prove their identity. But that can be easily fooled, Maimon said. Athletes' pictures are easy to find online and there are plenty of AI tools that can convincingly deepfake their heads turning, he noted.
Jason Rivarde, the commander of public affairs at the Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office in Louisiana, said his office had arrested two people earlier this year for allegedly attempting to take out loans by posing as Cam Ward, Tennessee Titans quarterback and 2025 first overall draft pick, as well as his father.
The pair were caught when an employee at a Jefferson County financial institution who had served them before recognized them trying to take out a loan in a third name, Rivarde said.
The Wards and the Titans did not respond to requests for comment.
The NBA and the NFL players unions both provide rookies with basic financial literacy training and recommend vetted financial advisers, spokespeople for the unions told NBC News.
But it's particularly hard for newly famous people to fully protect themselves from dogged identity thieves, especially if they have not yet hired advisers to handle their finances and closely watch their credit reports. Experts like Maimon say one of the best defenses is for everyone to keep their credit frozen, but that's a tall order for an athlete who signs a major contract and is inclined to buy items that require a credit check, such as vehicles and property.
