Top cities for identity theft and fraud
Intersections, Inc. recently released results from a study of the top cities for “ijacking.” iJacking is their made up word to scare you into buying their credit monitoring services. I can only imagine how much this study cost them. I thought it would be fun to compare their expensive study with some free data I compiled in about 5 minutes.
This first list took me about 20 seconds. It is the top 10 cities in the U.S. searching the web for “identity theft” (source: Google Trends.)
1. Las Vegas, NV, USA
2. Salt Lake City, UT, USA
3. Phoenix, AZ, USA
4. Washington, DC, USA
5. Columbus, OH, USA
6. Raleigh, NC, USA
7. Denver, CO, USA
8. Austin, TX, USA
9. St Louis, MO, USA
10. Sacramento, CA, USA
And the Federal Trade Commission’s top 15 cities for identity theft complaints in 2005 (Source: FTC):
1 Phoenix-Mesa-Scottsdale, AZ
2 Las Vegas-Paradise, NV
3 Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario, CA
4 Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, TX
5 Los Angeles-Long Beach-Santa Ana, CA
6 Miami-Fort Lauderdale-Miami Beach, FL
7 San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA
8 Houston-Baytown-Sugar Land, TX
9 San Diego-Carlsbad-San Marcos, CA
10 San Antonio, TX
11 Denver-Aurora, CO
12 Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Marietta, GA
13 Orlando, FL
14 Sacramento--Arden-Arcade--Roseville, CA
15 Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA
Now, the FTC’s top 15 cities for fraud-related complaints in 2005 (Source: FTC):
1 Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV
2 Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, FL
3 Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA
4 Phoenix-Mesa-Scottsdale, AZ
5 Austin-Round Rock, TX
6 Salt Lake City, UT
7 San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA
8 San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA
9 Portland-Vancouver-Beaverton, OR-WA
10 San Diego-Carlsbad-San Marcos, CA
11 Indianapolis, IN
12 Las Vegas-Paradise, NV
13 Denver-Aurora, CO
14 Sacramento--Arden-Arcade--Roseville, CA
15 Orlando, FL
This is the top 10 cities for “iJacking” from Intersections’ comprehensive study:
1) San Francisco
2) Seattle
3) Denver
4) San Jose
5) San Diego
6) Atlanta
7) Salt Lake City
8) Las Vegas
9) Sacramento
10) Phoenix
Sheesh. All of the iJacking cities show up on my three lists. I could have saved Intersections a bundle. 
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