I found an interesting item when I scanned the headlines in the business section of The Dallas Morning News. Seems that the Federal Trade Commission placed Houston ahead of Dallas in 2005 for the number of people in each metro area who filed complaints about identity theft.
However, according to a new study by Sperling’s Best Places, the Houston area ranks behind Dallas/Fort Worth based on various factors to determine the “riskiest” cities for ID Theft. Sperling considers 80 factors in four categories to determine the outcome. The four categories include the impact of technology, lifestyle risks, transaction habits and at-risk behavior.
Sounds kind of scientific, but whatever the outcome, the Houston-Baytown-Sugar Land area was ranked 22nd out of the 50 metro areas. San Antonio was ranked 35th, while Dallas came in at #13.
While experts can look at any factors they want to when figuring out what makes us tick and what constitutes “risky” behavior, I’ll say once again that we need to be more careful with our personal information, even if it means perhaps buying less stuff on the Internet and offering sensitive data to perfect strangers who seem legitimate.
Houston: Let’s try to curb our risk and rank even lower next year.
What do you think? Send me a comment.