Study: Michigan One of Top States for Identity Theft

Michiganders’ tendency to trust may make them more vulnerable to identity theft and fraud scams, a University of Michigan expert suggests. (Photo via Creative Commons)

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Michigan is one of the top U.S. states for identity theft, the No. 1 consumer complaint in the country for the 15th consecutive year, according to a new study released by the Federal Trade Commission.

With 10,338 identity theft complaints in 2014, Michigan ranked sixth in the Consumer Sentinel Network Data Book analysis, behind Florida, Washington, Oregon, Missouri and Georgia.

Michigan also ranked high in fraud complaints, landing at No. 5, behind Florida, Georgia, Nevada and Delaware.

Why are Americans so vulnerable?

It’s simple, Bonnie Knutson, a professor of brand management and marketing at Michigan State University, told the Detroit Free Press: fear and greed, two fundamental human qualities.

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Knutson she’s not surprised so many people fall for scams, even in a technically savvy and sophisticated country like the United States.

“We always think of ourselves as rational human beings and we’re not ... We’re always looking for a free lunch,” she said. “We’re also thinking, ‘What if?’”

“What if?” backfired for more than 330,000 Americans who complained of identity theft 2014.

Knutson said Midwesterners’ trustful nature may also make them vulnerable to scams

“The scammers are, in essence, very smart marketing people,” she said. “They know what the hot buttons of their targets are.”

The identity theft complaints were among 2,582,85 registered across 30 categories in 2014, excluding do-not-call issues. The number of complaints last year was up more than 400,000 from 2013 and nearly 470,000 from 2012.

Nationally, the FTC data revealed 13 percent of all consumer complaints – 332,646 in all – concerned cases where victims’ information was used for a variety of frauds, including:

• government documents or benefits (38.7 percent),
• credit card (17.4 percent), and
• phones or utilities (12.5 percent).

Americans also lodged complaints about:

• debt collection (11 percent);
• impostor scams (11 percent);
• telephone and mobile services (7 percent);
• banks and lenders (5 percent);
• prizes, sweepstakes and lotteries (4 percent);
• auto-related complaints (3 percent);
• shop-at-home and catalog sales (3 percent);
• TV and electronic media (2 percent); and
• Internet services (2 percent ).