Napa, California named worst town for identity theft

Posted by Joe on March 5th, 2008

Napa, the heart of California's wine country, has the highest rate of identity theft complaints of any town in the United States according to a recent Federal Trade Commission (FTC) report.

Over 300 identity theft complaints were made per 100,000 Napa residents in 2007. Madera, a town in California's central valley, was number two on the list and Greely, Colorado was third with 280 and 228 complaints per thousand residents respectively.

At a state level, Arizona had the highest rate of identity theft complaints at 137 complaints and California was second with 120 complaints per thousand.

Of the 800,000 fraud related crimes reported to the FTC in 2007 a full 32%, or about 256,000, were identity theft related. The most prevalent form of id theft reported was credit card fraud which accounted for 23%, or about 58,880, identity theft incidents according to the FTC report.

The single best way for residents of California, Arizona or any state of the union to protect themselves is with a proactive identity theft protection service. You can learn more by reading our identity theft protect service reviews.

• California identity theft protection guide: facts, trends and resources
• Arizona identity theft protection guide: facts, trends and resources
• Texas identity theft protection guide: facts, trends and resources
• Is your state putting your identity at risk?
• Data Breach Alert: Thousands of California students at risk for identity theft