Last month, the Federal Trade Commission released a report listing the top complaints consumers made in 2009. The complaints were submitted to the Consumer Sentinel Network (CSN), a secure online database of millions of consumer complaints available only to law enforcement. In addition to storing complaints received by the FTC, the CSN also includes complaints filed with the Internet Crime Complaint Center, Better Business Bureaus, Canada’s PhoneBusters, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, the Identity Theft Assistance Center, and the National Fraud Information Center, among others.
Between January and December 2009, the CSN received more than 1.3 million consumer complaints. The complaints are unverified and are not based on consumer surveys.
The top two complaints related to (1) identity theft, which accounted for 21% of the overall complaints and (2) third party and creditor debt collection, with 9% of the overall complaints. In the identity theft category, credit card fraud was the most common form of identity theft. Interestingly, “government documents/benefits fraud” was second. Although identity theft continues to be a significant problem for consumers, the good news is that identity theft-related credit card fraud decreased 6% since 2007 and overall identity theft complaints declined 5% from 2008.
Which states have the highest per capita rate of identity theft? Florida, Arizona, Texas, and California.
The lowest? South Dakota, North Dakota, Maine, and Iowa.
Readers can obtain a copy of the 98-page report at http://www.ftc.gov/sentinel/reports/sentinel-annual-reports/sentinelcy2009.pdf.