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Top 10 Consumer Complaints: Lies, Damn Lies and Consumer Fraud Statistics
Got ripped off last year? Got a complaint? Beside your local police department the perhaps the Better Business Business, the Federal Trade Comission is the ultimate place tracking society's biggest complaints and consumer problems.
Apparently 685,000 of you did file a report, saying you were among the victims throughout America reporting total losses of $680 million. That's almost $1,000 per person. Or second-row, left-center for a U2 show.
However, the reality is, as reported by the United Postal Service, identity theft is America's fastest-growing crime. Last year alone, they say more than 9.9 million Americans were victims of identity theft, a crime that cost roughly $5 billion.
That's a problem -- and a story -- trending bigger every year.
For the sixth year in a row, identity theft tops the annual list of consumer complaints collected by Federal Trade Commission. The list is strikingly similar to last year, with online auction fraud, sweepstakes, and advance-fee loans also in the top 10. But the number of consumers victimized via wire transfer has skyrocketed, tripling in the past two years, the FTC said. And child ID theft cases have nearly doubled in that span.
The Federal Trade Commission's 2005 report of most common crime complaints, ranked by percentage of total complaints. Last year's percentage is in parenthesis.
- 1. Identity theft 37% (39% in 2004)
- 2. Internet Auctions 12% (16%)
- 3. Foreign Money Offers 8% (6%)
- 4. Shop-at-Home/Catalog Sales 8% (8%)
- 5. Prizes/Sweepstakes and Lotteries 7% (5%)
- 6. Internet Services and Computer Complaints 5% (6%)
- 7. Business Opportunities and Work-at-Home Plans 2% (2%)
- 8. Advance-Fee Loans and Credit Protection 2% (3%)
- 9. Telephone Services 2% (2%)
- 10. Other 17% (12%)
full msnbc.com article
Information on identity theft
posted by Unknown @ Wednesday, January 25, 2006,
