FORBES magazine notes that in recent years at least ten separate swindles have been uncovered in Utah involving more than 9,000 people (1 percent of Utah's adults) and losses are estimated at more than $200 million. In asking itself "why?" the magazine described Utah as "fertile soil for swindles" because of excessive trust among LDS members: "Most of those bilked are Mormons, and the bilkers, too, profess to be upstanding members of the church and use church connections"
[Source: http://www.advent-adam.com/jakestand.html (cached, based on http://amzn.to/newmormonstudies)]
FORBES or some other respectable magazine should do a follow-up study covering the last 30 years until the present day. They no doubt will find that the same things have sadly been happening and are still happening in Utah. Unfortunately, this 1% (or whatever the % is today) gives many outsiders (including this writer) the false impression that Utah is "the sinkhole of the west" and LDS must stand for "Latter-Day Swindlers."
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