Professional Documents
Culture Documents
MICHAEL HOGUE
Staff Artist mhogue@dallasnews.com
Consumer fraud and identity theft complaints surged in Texas and the rest of the nation in 2012, according to data from the Federal Trade Commission. For the first time, the FTC received more than 2 million complaints last year, with 18 percent of them related to identity theft. In all, consumers reported losses of more than $1.4 billion to fraud-related conduct, the FTC said.
U.S. 650,256
Complaints rising
Number of complaints the FTC received, 2002-12:
Total*
2.06 million
2 million 1.5
551,622
Fraud Identity theft
1 million 0.5 0
02
12
*Total includes other consumer complaints that aren't fraud or identity theft
Loan fraud
Other 19%
3%
Bank fraud
7%
6%
Government documents or benefits fraud 41%
Employmentrelated fraud
10%
2012 complaints Ohio 7,479 New Jersey 8,430 New Jersey 7,599 Michigan 8,119 Ohio 8,891 Pennsylvania 11,324 Pennsylvania 10,061 Michigan 12,075 Georgia 11,625 Illinois 10,361 2011 complaints New York 17,880
Texas was home to four of the 50 metro areas with the highest number of identify theft complaints in 2012. D-FW-Arlington 142.1 per 100,000
population
Illinois 12,993
Georgia 19,232
Texas 24,162
Far-ranging fraud
Of the complaints where consumers reported the frauds country of origin, the most by far came from the U.S. Here are the five countries that consumers reported most often: Canada 44,411 United Kingdom 14,950 India 8,415 Nigeria 9,977
Texas 28,299
California 46,658
The number of identity theft complaints in Texas rose 17 percent in 2012 from the year before, and the Lone Star State ranked third in the nation for identity theft.
California 38,607
Florida 33,595
BOTTOM LINE
Florida 69,795 With identity theft, part of the problem is that many people dont know that theyre victims of identity theft. You may not know for a while, so that when you do find out about it, it can be much more of a surprise than in other kinds of consumer transactions. Steve Toporoff, attorney with Federal Trade Commission A lot of people are using their smartphones to do financial transactions, and people are using their laptop at Wi-Fi places. Its making it easier for the bad guys to intercept our information. David Leopard, former FBI agent, who makes presentations on identity theft While its critical that consumers be proactive in protecting their identities, theres only so much we can do. Identity theft could be caused by something as simple as losing your wallet, but it could also stem from things out of our control, such as hacking from overseas. Pamela Yip, Personal Finance Writer, The Dallas Morning News