Ranking Corporate America on Identity Theft

The New York Times covered a report compiled by Chris Hoofnagle at the Berkeley Center for Law and Technology at the University of California at Berkeley on the institutions most frequently cited by consumers in fraud complaints.

The country's largest banks and phone companies showed up most frequently, of course. To account for size, Mr. Hoofnagle factored in the total amount of deposits per institution as of Dec. 31, 2006.

Mr. Hoofnagle said he believe the study was an important step in creating an "identity theft marketplace" for consumers.

"I've been working for years to try to spark a market, a true market, for competition on preventing fraud," he said. "Some of these institutions have attempted to compete based on advertisements, but I'm a real believer in the idea that if you give consumers information, they can make better decisions."

For the complete report, see Measuring Identity Theft at Top Banks.