Colorado Is Third-Most Scammed State In The Country

Colorado is among the nation's most scammed states, according to data released by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).

The annual FTC report on fraud and identity theft analyzes data on the frequency of these crimes from 2009. Colorado was found to be the third-most scam-prone state in the country, trailing only Washington D.C. and Nevada.

According to Mainstreet.com, there were 412.4 fraud complaints and 95 identity theft victims for every 100,000 Coloradans. Internet Services and Third Party and Creditor Debt Collection-related scams were the most common types of fraud perpetrated in Colorado, both accounting for 9% of total fraud reports.

Employment-Related Fraud, which occurs when personal information is stolen from employee records, accounted for one quarter of all identity theft cases in Colorado.

Nationally, credit card fraud was found to account for 40% of fraud, cases and lead to victimization in 17% of identity theft cases.

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Comments

[Mary Blickhahn]

11:25 AM on 01/24/2011

I am intimate with this problem in Colorado. Colorado is home to many very high security and military instillations that protect our country, Yet the employees enjoy no protection from scamming! This state does nothing to protect the public from scamming. More impotently the law protects the scammers and enforces the victims pay them. There is no legal help for the victim or recourse for the companies that run the scam. These companies are both legit and not legit, They are both large and small in size. Many really large companies are guilty of scamming the public and they get by with it. I have called everyone, the Ag, DA's, judges, lawyers and state legislators and federal legislators. The PUC when it involved Qwest and The BBB. I went to Legal aide and the county court house. Businesses are getting buy with changing terms of contracts, payment agreements that were in writing, loosing payments, and just not crediting accounts. They can fail to provide services, and just flat out lie to get you to sign. We have no hope or protection. This is the first article I have even seen about this and I had contacted many media sources. I am grateful someone finally thought to check! Maybe enough politicians will begin to think there is a problem and create some legislation to protect us....but I am not holding my breath!

[Olderandwiser55]

01:32 PM on 01/24/2011

But it's no wonder-the AG is John Suthers who is pro-business, not pro-people