Recent figures from the Federal Trade Commission shows that Arizona leads the United States in cases of identity theft. The figures are for the year 2006 and go on to show a state-by-state look at the nation and the rate of identity theft claims.

Arizona tops the list, followed by the District of Columbia, Nevada, California and Texas. However, just because you don’t happen to live in one of these states doesn’t mean that you don’t have anything to worry about when it comes to online credit report identity theft.

The report indicates that there were 148 cases of identity theft per 100,000 people in the state of Arizona. People in the age category of 50+ are hit especially hard with 23 percent of all identity theft cases.

In the worse cases of ID theft, consumers that have their personal information stolen are refused new loans, have lost their jobs, have wages garnished or have been arrested for crimes that they did not commit. Identity theft can really make a mess of your life and can take years to clean up and cost you a lot in terms of both money and time.

You should really consider investing in your financial future and purchase protection against identity theft from a reputable company. You hopefully will never need the services offered by such a company, but for pennies a day, how can you afford to go without? Protect identity theft should be at the top of everybody’s mind. Is it on yours?