Poll puts N.M. at high risk for frauds, ID theft
Good news, bad news.
New Mexico ranks 44th in the nation for vulnerability to identity theft, but it soars toward the top of the list — No. 7 — when it comes to fraud.
Those were the results of a WalletHub study, which gave New Mexico an overall rank of 27th nationwide when both identity theft and fraud are taken into account. Fraud includes such things as imposter and debt collection scams, as well as phone and email schemes.
The reasons behind New Mexico’s high ranking on the fraud front were these numbers: 594 fraud complaints per 100,000 residents in the state, with an average loss of $1,431 per incident, according to the study.
Albuquerque Police Department Sgt. Will Dorian thinks he knows why we have this dubious distinction.
It’s because the state has a healthy population of two groups that are major targets: people 65 and older and military personnel. Older folks are seen as an easy target because they can be more gullible. Those 65 and older comprised 13.2 percent of the state’s population in 2010, but that figure rose to 15.8 percent in 2015, Dorian said.
Members of the military are subject to fraud because they tend to make financial transactions online when they are deployed, making them vulnerable to hackers, he said.
On the plus side, Dorian said the state’s healthy ranking for identity theft reflects public awareness campaigns by law enforcement agencies. People are responding and are shredding more of their personal documents and picking up their mail promptly so it doesn’t get stolen. As Dorian put it: “We’re hardening the targets.”
The targets aren’t so hardened in the District of Columbia, which came in at No. 1 for both identity theft and fraud, according to the Wallethub study.
On the other hand, you’re safest in Maine, which had the fewest cases of fraud per capita, and Hawaii, with the fewest cases of identity theft.
One very basic approach to protecting yourself is to limit the amount of personal information you send out into the world. That way, you are less vulnerable when it comes to the ever-growing problem of company data breaches. A national ID Theft Resource Center update in the fall said 901 breaches had exposed more than 34 million records to date in 2016.
Here are some safety ideas, courtesy of experts interviewed as part of the Wallethub study:
■ Lie. For example, put the wrong birth date on your Facebook page. Or take it one step further, and create a doppelganger when it comes to your online presence and answering security questions. “… it is becoming more and more difficult to control basic (and very personal) information about your life — whereas a fictional version of yourself can prove far more secure,” says Sascha Meinrath, director of X-Lab at Pennsylvania State University.
■ Request your name be removed from pre-approved credit card mailing lists at optoutprescreen.com.
■ Cancel credit cards you’re not using and don’t apply for new credit. Applications for retailer-branded credit cards, in particular, require providing personal information.
■ Wipe data before donating or recycling old devices. Research done by Murugan Anandarajan at Drexel University showed that only 48 percent of people surveyed erased data before getting rid of their phones.
Ellen Marks is assistant business editor at the Albuquerque Journal. Contact her at emarks@abqjournal.com or 505-823-3842 if you are aware of what sounds like a scam. To report a scam to law enforcement, contact the New Mexico Consumer Protection Division toll-free at 1-844-255-9210.