I think you just proved the point...

But, could the numbers be higher because they were the first and therefore the records have been available longer on-line?

I think the answer to your question is "yes."  And, the longer our records are available online, the higher incidents we will have for such fraud.

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.

I think you are forgetting that a lot of these scams are perpetrated by people in Nigeria and other foreign contries where they have nothing better to do than sift through the online records available for free on the Internet.  It may be a lot of tedious work, but they only need to find one to steal tens of thousands of dollars.  In a third-world country, I'm sure its worth the effort.

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.

That is the problem... the people "at-risk" don't know about it.  But, the criminals do.  Why should we be making this information available to crooks in Nigeria?  It just doesn't make any sense.

Best,
Robert A. Franco
SOURCE OF TITLE