Fine Wine and Identity Theft?

What do fine wine and identity theft have in common? According to the FTC's top cities for identity theft, the answer is Napa, California.

Christopher Null blogged about this on Yahoo:

While you're sipping Chardonnay and enjoying the beauty of the wine country, crooks may be busy swiping your identity. According to a Federal Trade Commission study, Napa, California, earned the title of worst town for identity theft, with over 300 consumer complaints per 100,000 residents in 2007.

Madera, California, (280 complaints per 100,000 residents) and Greeley, Colorado, (228 complaints) followed Napa on the list. On a state level, California (120 complaints) was surpassed by only Arizona, which had the worst per-capita trouble with identity theft (137 complaints).

I decided to go to a more local Northern California source and found that Channel 10 News out of Sacramento/Stockton/Modesto covered the story, also.

Cornell Barnard (News 10) reports:

Stockton ranks number 21 out of 50 on the Federal Trade Commission's list of the worst cities for identity theft complaints.

Stockton Police can't pinpoint why their city ranks so high, but the valley's trade take part of the blame, a constant hunger for cash.

"It's all connected. It's a brutal crime for those victimized," said Stockton Police spokesman Pete Smith.In addition to Stockton, Northern California is well-represented on the FTC list. Napa tops the list of U.S. metropolitan areas for identity theft consumer complaints, logging over 302 complaints for every 100,000 residents during 2007. Nearbly Vallejo and Fairfield rank sixth while the Yuba City area comes in 11th.

Interestingly enough, Vallejo and Fairfield are just over the hill from Napa and one of the entry points for the San Francisco Bay area. Yuba City is roughly just North of the Napa Valley. These cities aren't very far from Stockton, either.

Maybe this means, there is a higher incidence of Identity Theft in Northern California? Napa might be the worst because it is an affluent area and the better a person's credit is -- the more lucrative their identity is to a criminal.

Being a fifth generation, or so Northern California type (a lot of this blog is written from there), I'd like to point out that Northern California also hosts a lot of information to combat the identity theft problem. In fact, some of the best resources to protect and educate people originate from the area.

Sacramento, which didn't make the list is the State Capital. The Office of Privacy Protection is one of the better written information sources to educate people about the problem of identity theft. Please note the information on this site is available in English, Espanol and Chinese.

For the more frugal, this page contains all the information needed to protect a person without paying for one of those services with an alleged $1 million guarantee.

Interestingly enough, the State of California is also known as being pretty proactive when it comes to protecting the rights of victims. Many of the privacy laws enacted in California have had a worldwide impact.

A great place to read more about the problem is a document outlining Governor Schwarzenegger's 2005 Identity Theft Summit. This document includes a lot of perspective from privacy groups, law enforcement and business groups on the problem.

Last, but not least, a University of Berkeley professor, Chris Hoofnagle just issued an interesting paper based off information culled from the FTC about which financial institutions are most prone to making their customers a victim of identity theft. Professor Hoofnagle openly admits that the results might be jaded because they are only from a consumer complaint point of view and that most financial institutions seem to prefer not to release these statistics.

If your a more "visual type," Cornell Barnard's newscast on this story can be seen, here.

If you are one of those more "scholarly types," the full FTC report on this can be viewed, here.

As Southern California burns, watch out for charity scams!

A sad commentary on how some people react to a disaster are the amount of scams that surface as a result of them.

The Postal Inspectors are warning us that we are likely to see a lot of these scams appear as a result of the Southern California fires.

If you are one of the good people out there, who intends to lend some financial support, it is a wise thing to make sure your hard-earned money is going where it is supposed to.

From the USPIS release:

Our charitable nature leaves us vulnerable to charity fraud schemes. Most charities are legitimate organizations that support good causes. Some, however, are run by swindlers. With more than 700,000 federally recognized charities soliciting for charitable contributions, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service reminds everyone it pays to be cautious when making a donation.

Disasters bring out the best in people who truly desire to help those impacted by these situations. Unfortunately, disasters also bring out the worst; scammers take advantage of the circumstances by stealing the charitable donations intended to help victims of the disaster. Postal Inspectors saw numerous charity scams emerge in the days following the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, the 2004 Southeast Asia earthquake and tsunami, and the September 11th terrorist attacks.

The recent California firestorm offers a new opportunity for fraudsters to perpetrate charity scams. If you're considering a contribution to help with relief efforts, it's important to know where your donation dollars will go. California Charities can be researched on the Attorney Generalwebsite, http://ag.ca.gov/charities or at the Better Business Bureau's Wise Giving Alliance, http://www.give.org/.

The Postal Inspectors are also offering some general tips on how to avoid these scams:

-- Give donations to known charities, or research new or unfamiliar charities first.

-- Refuse high-pressure appeals. Legitimate fundraisers won't push you to give on the spot. -- Be suspicious of solicitors who say they can only accept a cash donation.

-- Always make checks out to the name of the charity, never to an individual.

-- Be wary of "sound-alike" charities, many scammers use names that sound similar to names of legitimate charities.

-- Be skeptical if someone thanks you for a pledge you don't remember making. This is a tactic scammers use to lull victims into sending "additional" funds.

-- Ask for ID. For-profit fundraisers must disclose the name of the charity requesting the donation --- it's the law. Many states require paid fundraisers to identify themselves as such and to name the charity for which they're soliciting. If the solicitor refuses to tell you, hang up and report it to law enforcement officials. Also ask how much of your donation goes to those in need and how much goes to the fund raiser.

Last, but not least -- if you spot one of these scammers, you can help terminate their activities by reporting them to the Postal Inspectors.

You can find your local Postal Inspector by calling 877-876-2455. If you are of a more technical nature and prefer to report illegal activity online, you may do so, by clicking here.

USPIS release, here.

Although, Arnold isn't taking calls from bloggers this morning, I'm sure he supports terminating this type of activity, also.

The people in Southern California will need a lot of money to help them recover. Wasting monetary resources on scams will not help the situation.

PS: I'm dedicating this post to Paul Young, a noted Southern California blogger and friend, who writes Prying1.

I've enjoyed reading his investigative insights on issues, which are obtained, by digging a little deeper than the mainstream media.