My thought on identity theft has long been that anyone who steals my identity clearly doesn’t understand what they are getting. Undoubtedly, I should take the threat more seriously because there’s federal data that shows Lawrence not long ago was one of the worst places in America for identity theft.

But there’s also new federal data that shows the situation is improving here.

Both sets of data are from the Federal Trade Commission. The first set of data measured the number of identity theft reports in 2021. The data showed that Lawrence had the second-highest rate of identity theft of any U.S. metro area. The federal numbers showed Lawrence had 1,779 identity theft reports per 100,000 residents. Only the Providence, Rhode Island, metro had more.

That data largely fell through the cracks when it was released in early 2022, which you may remember was a time when our focus was on taking our masks off and breathing again. (That is my excuse for missing the data back then: My eyes were still watering from smelling my own breath for the better part of a year.)

The 2021 data measured identity theft that was occurring during the pandemic. That’s likely important, and probably a big reason why Lawrence ended up with such a high number of cases. The federal numbers show the entire state of Kansas was a hotspot for identity theft during the pandemic.

The FTC numbers show that Kansas overall had the second-highest rate of identity theft reports in the country in 2021. Its rate of 1,355 identity theft reports per 100,000 residents was second only to Rhode Island.

While Lawrence ranked No. 2 nationally among metro areas, we had plenty of Kansas company in the metro rankings in 2021. Topeka was No. 3, Wichita was No. 4, Manhattan was No. 8 and the KC metro area that includes both Kansas and Missouri was No. 15.

How did Kansas communities come to occupy five of the 15 worst spots in America for identity theft?

The FTC report doesn’t offer explanations for Kansas’ surge in identity theft reports. But perhaps you remember what was going on with the state of Kansas’ unemployment system during the pandemic. It was a major target of fraudsters during large parts of the pandemic. The fraud involved people submitting false unemployment claims using the identities of Kansas residents. The activity was so bad that a state-hired consultant has since estimated that Kansas paid about $450 million in fraudulent unemployment claims during the pandemic.

Identity theft was a component of nearly all of those fraudulent claims, so it is probably a safe assumption that the unemployment issue played a major role in the spike in Kansas’ numbers.

The 2022 data, which was released a few months ago, also indicates that was likely the case. Attacks on Kansas’ unemployment system dropped considerably in 2022, so it is probably no coincidence that the number of identity theft reports in both Kansas and Lawrence dropped by a lot.

The 2022 federal data shows Kansas was ranked No. 26 in the country for the rate of identity theft reports, down from No. 2 a year earlier. More striking is how much the rate dropped. Kansas in 2022 had 194 identity theft reports per 100,000 people. That was down from 1,355 per 100,000 people in 2021. In other words, identity theft was about seven times worse in 2021 than 2022.

As for Lawrence, it dropped entirely out of the rankings. The FTC only ranks the top 50 metro areas. No Kansas community was ranked in the top 50 worst areas in 2022.

So, the situation is improving, but there likely are still impacts from the 2021 spike that are being felt across the state. The Kansas Department of Labor, which oversees the state’s unemployment system, provides several tips for people who believe they are the victim of identity theft. They include:

• Contact the Federal Trade Commission at IdentityTheft.gov. The FTC keeps a national database of identity theft reports, which can be accessed by law enforcement agencies across the country.

• Contact at least one of the three major credit bureaus to have a fraud alert placed on your credit record. The three agencies — which play a key role in computing your credit score — are: Equifax, 866-349-5191; Experian, 888-397-3742; TransUnion, 800-680-7289.

• Contact your financial providers, including banks, credit unions, investment firms and credit card companies, and ask them to flag any irregular transactions in the future, so that you can be immediately alerted to any unauthorized activity.

• Check your Social Security earnings statements to ensure your reported wages are correct. Social Security information can be checked at ssa.gov/myaccount.