DISQUS

The Colorado Independent: Greeley Tops Consumer Fraud Complaint List

  • ohwilleke · 2 years ago
    Sounds like a statistical quirk The high per capita numbers are probably due in part to the fact that some college students who don't live there most of the time are still counted at their parent's addresses.


    Weld County may be also impacted by rapid population growth that isn't fully reflected in population estimates.

  • Wendy Norris · 2 years ago
    there's lots of ways to slice and dice the numbers Unfortunately, the detailed nationwide figures were not extrapolated at the state level but one of the more interesting findings definitely flies in the face of conventional wisdom that older people are more likely to be a victim of reported consumer fraud.


    Complaints filed by age range show that mid-range persons from 30 - 60 years of age file many more complaints than younger people or the elderly.


    Younger people, aged 18-29, were more likely to file identity theft complaints  than any other age group.


    How and if these findings relate to the situation in Greeley with a significant student and non-English speaking Latino populations, would be very interesting to know.


    Fort Collins, Boulder and Colo Springs have much larger student populations than Greeley yet they are further down the list.


    I'm really curious as to what's going on in Denver that the national rankings declined so significantly from one year to the next.

  • stealthisbook · 2 years ago
    Targetting the Rubes? Perhaps Greeley just happens to be a fraud sweet spot and so there's just a whole lot of fraud going on rather than there being a higher reporting rate.  Greeley is a fast growing city with large immigrant and student populations, both are easily targeted for consumer fraud scams (both are also locally vilified for their supposed contributions to the crime rate). 


    In addition, even though it is a college town, Greeley has a per capita income of only about $18,000 indicating for me a fairly large wealth disparity.  Greeley's low wages have lured in three large call centers, and depending on the way a credit card fraud is prosecuted, I wouldn't be surprised if the Weld DA has jurisdiction over a number of those sorts of complaints.