Yikes! Florida is No. 1 in the sun on fraud, ID theft

Yikes! Florida is No. 1 in the sun on fraud, ID theft

Florida’s got it all: Sun. Sand. Identity theft on a massive scale that puts the rest of the country in the shade.

Florida leads the nation in both fraud and identify theft complaints per resident, the Federal Trade Commission says today.

The metro area including Miami, Ft. Lauderdale and West Palm Beach tops the country with 316.2 ID theft complaints per 100,000 people, leaving No. 2 Seattle (207) and No. 3. St. Louis (204.4) far behind.

Out of more than 2.5 million complaints, the Sunshine State hogged the most per capita.

“Florida was the top source of complaints per capita both for identity theft, and fraud and other complaints,” an agency statement notes.

Identity theft is the nation’s No. 1 complaint with 332,646 gripes, or 13 percent, followed by debt collection with 280,998 or 11 percent.

No. 3? Impostor scams. That’s when con artists impersonate government officials or others.

Already the IRS has recommended Floridians get a special ID code to help thwart fraud on their tax returns.
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