I do understand your point but most of the oblivious persons you speak of didn't even know the records where on-line period.  I constantly surprise people - friends and family too - when I tell them about the County websites.  They never even knew such a thing existed or that anyone could go to the court house and get the records directly. 

The criminals have other ways of getting personal information.  On line County Records just don't seem like a viable option.  Correct me if I am wrong, because I really have never checked into it, I would think it would take way too long to go thru thousands of records to find a few SS#'s.  Doesn't a crimal look for the fastest easiest way to make a buck?  I am not sure that pooring over all the records would be all that beneficial and it would be terribly time consuming.  But then again as a criminal you probably have lots of free time since you don't have a real job with working hours, etc., etc.....

And then, look at the credit card companies and the breaches they have had with computer security or the kid that had the back up tape stolen from his car here not to long ago.  Not to mention the creeps that sit outside the malls and scan/steal our credit card numbers.

Arizona is a breading ground of fraud.  But, could the numbers be higher because they were the first and therefore the records have been available longer on-line?  Just a thought but I do see your point about the information being out there. It really shouldn't be and we still call the clerk or the recorder when we see ss#'s on line - which believe it or not we just found a few months ago in Franklin County.  There are still loop holes in the system even with BJ's "dilligence".