FTC’s Annual Summary of Consumer Complaints

The FTC recently released its annual report (2.6mb PDF)summarizing complaints of fraud, identity theft, and similar problems across the country and broken down by individual states. It makes for some interesting reading.

I’ve broken out the data on general fraud and identity thefts by states in the tables below. I was surprised to see Michigan, where I live, at #3 for fraud complaints and #1 for identity theft complaints.

Fraud and Other Complaints, 2016

StateComplaints Per 100,000 PopulationComplaints
Florida1305.6269117
Georgia1136.6117189
Michigan1083.3107557
Texas952.3265347
Nevada87225636
Alabama80939344
Maryland807.748594
Delaware797.57593
Tennessee767.351036
California713.1279887
Missouri706.543050
Louisiana701.932861
Virginia701.358991
South Carolina700.834767
Rhode Island682.17206
New Mexico667.913900
Ohio664.877213
Pennsylvania659.284270
Arizona656.945528
North Carolina641.265059
New Jersey636.756951
Mississippi609.318210
Colorado609.133745
Connecticut590.421117
Illinois576.773829
New York567.3112006
New Hampshire563.87525
Indiana562.837329
Washington554.740423
Massachusetts547.237271
Oregon546.822385
West Virginia543.39948
Kentucky539.723948
Arkansas51915510
Oklahoma518.720350
Kansas503.414635
Minnesota470.725980
Wisconsin465.926921
Idaho463.47800
Montana441.24600
Maine423.75642
Utah417.912750
Wyoming416.22437
Nebraska411.97855
Vermont405.42532
Hawaii403.85768
Alaska358.92663
Iowa342.510735
South Dakota320.62775
North Dakota284.72185

 

Identity Theft Complaints, 2016

StateComplatins Per 100,000 PopulationComplaints
Michigan175.617430
Florida166.834384
Delaware155.91484
California139.554744
Illinois13817660
Connecticut137.94933
Maryland137.18251
Missouri136.18292
Nevada135.83993
Arizona126.28748
Georgia12412787
Texas119.233214
Rhode Island115.11216
Washington1148310
Colorado1126203
New Jersey111.59977
Pennsylvania109.714030
Minnesota107.25919
Massachusetts1077287
Oregon105.34312
Virginia104.38772
New York102.320205
New Hampshire101.31352
New Mexico96.92016
Alaska96.1713
North Carolina96.19746
Ohio94.811009
South Carolina89.54438
Maine87.91170
Wisconsin87.55054
Kansas87.12532
Tennessee865718
Oklahoma85.13337
Utah83.22540
Nebraska83.11584
Alabama82.44007
Idaho80.11348
Mississippi79.62378
Arkansas77.22308
Indiana76.85091
Wyoming74.6437
Louisiana69.73264
Montana68.2711
Iowa68.12135
Kentucky65.32898
Vermont62387
North Dakota61.3465
West Virginia59.71093
South Dakota58.1503
Hawaii55.2789

Pakistani Judge Attacks Social Media Terrorists

Justice Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui of Pakistan’s Islamabad High Court declared this week that those who upload “blasphemous” materials on social media are “terrorists.”

[Siddiqui said] “If government cannot block such blasphemous pages then it should shut down PTA. If we need to close the entire social media on this count then we will do so.”

He gave these remarks while announcing the orders in the case of uploading of blasphemous material on social media Tuesday.

Justice Shaukat Aziz remarked, “I declare all those as terrorists who upload such blasphemous material on social media.”

The Chairman of the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority tried to explain to Siddiqui that it’s not possible to filter social media for blasphemy, to which Siddiqui suggested that the chairman should quit and/or the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority should be shut down if they couldn’t not remove blasphemous materials.

Personally, I’m of the view that the best solution to blasphemous speech is more blasphemous speech.