December 21, 2014 Scam #21 – Identity Theft: Were number three! Each year the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) publishes a document called the Consumer Sentinel Network (CSN) Data Book. In addition to storing complaints received by the FTC, the CSN also includes complaints filed with state law enforcement organizations. Federal agencies, including the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the FBIs Internet Crime Complaint Center, also contribute data. According to the 2014 Consumer Sentinel Report published in February 2014; covering January to December 2013: Identity Theft was the number one complaint (14% ) of the overall complaints followed by Debt Collection (10%) Banks and Lenders (7%); Impostor Scams (6%); Telephone and Mobile Services (6%); Prizes, Sweepstakes and Lotteries (4%); Auto-Related Complaints (4%); Shop-at-Home and Catalog Sales (3%); Television and Electronic Media (3%); Advance Payments for Credit Services (2%). For military consumers Identity Theft was the number one complaint followed by Impostor Scams Foreign Money Offers and Counterfeit Check Fraud Over one million fraud complaints were reported - with consumers reporting losing over $1.6 billion, with the median amount lost being $400. Of those complaints,40% said the telephone, while another 33% said e-mail were the methods of initial contact. Florida is the state with the highest per capita rate of reported fraud and other types of complaints, followed by Nevada and Georgia. Identity Theft Government documents\benefits fraud (34%) was the most common form of reported identity theft, followed by credit card fraud (17%), phone or utilities fraud (14%), and bank fraud (8%). Other significant categories of identity theft reported by victims were employment-related fraud (6%) and loan fraud (4%). Florida is the state with the highest per capita rate of reported identity theft complaints, followed by Georgia and California. Source: FTC 2014 Consumer Sentinel Network Data Book ftc.gov/system/files/documents/reports/consumer-sentinel-network-data-book-january-december-2013/sentinel-cy2013.pdf
Posted on: Mon, 22 Dec 2014 23:03:05 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015