Bloomberg has a neat little cartoon that explains why, of all places, identity theft is rampant in Alabama. Compared to other states, according to Bloomberg, Alabama has a higher number of elderly people in nursing homes, felons in prison, and mentally ill people, all of whom are considered ideal victims for identity scammers, as they tend not to routinely file their own tax returns. Helping this crime along is the spread of electronic filing, which cuts down on the overhead needed to claim someone else's refund. Detection has also become more difficult, as fraudsters will choose to have the refund in the form of a prepaid debit card, versus a check or direct deposit that needs a bank. Overall, according to the Bloomberg article, these factors all combine into making Alabama a hotbed of tax-related identity theft, something that the Federal Trade Commission has started to notice.