North Carolina ranks 25th for identity theft

North Carolina had 6,287 complaints, or about 66 complaints per 100,000 residents, in 2011, compared to 5,986, or 63 per 100,000 residents in 2010. Theft of government documents or benefits fraud accounted for 21 percent of the identity-theft complaints in North Carolina last year. That was the state’s largest category. Employment-related fraud made up 7 percent of the reports. National figures showed 24 percent of identity thefts reported were for employment, but only 3 percent were for government documents. The Greensboro-High Point area had 634 total identity-theft reports in 2011, while the Winston-Salem region had 418. But the average was about the same for the two areas, with Winston-Salem averaging 91 complaints per 100,000 residents and Greensboro seeing about 92 complaints for every 100,000 residents. The number of identity-theft crimes reported has increased nationwide, according to the report. In 2011, 1.8 million complaints were filed with the FTC, of which 279,156 were for identity theft, 990,242 were for fraud and 543,682 were for other crimes. In 2010, the number of complaints received by the FTC totaled 1.46 million, of which 251,105 involved identity theft, 815,054 were for fraud and 394,209 were defined as “other. Identity theft remains the single largest complaint, making up 15 percent of the total received by the FTC. Debt-collection issues make up 10 percent of the claims, and fraudulent sweepstakes make up 6 percent. You can view the complete report here.]]>