{"id":139,"date":"2007-02-26T16:03:12","date_gmt":"2007-02-27T00:03:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.scamdex.com\/ScamBlog\/?p=139"},"modified":"2007-03-07T20:27:29","modified_gmt":"2007-03-08T04:27:29","slug":"no-surprises-there-dept","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/scamdex.com\/ScamBlog\/2007\/02\/no-surprises-there-dept\/","title":{"rendered":"No Surprises there dept."},"content":{"rendered":"

For the seventh year in a row, identity theft tops the FTC’s Annual List of Top Consumer Complaints. http:\/\/ftc.gov\/opa\/2007\/02\/topcomplaints.htm<\/a> :O\"Deter.<\/a><\/p>\n

accounting for 36 percent of the 674,354 complaints received between January 1 and December 31, 2006. Other categories near the top of the fraud complaint list include shop-at-home\/catalog sales; prizes, sweepstakes and lotteries; Internet services and computer complaints; and Internet auction fraud.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Consumers\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 help in stopping unlawful operations is critical,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said Deborah Platt Majoras, Chairman of the Federal Trade Commission. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153By filing a complaint with the FTC, consumers are making information available to more than 1,600 law enforcement agencies that have access to our secure database.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s as easy as a click or a call,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The FTC has an online complaint form at FTC.gov, or consumers can reach us at 1-877-FTC-HELP.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

This year brought some firsts. For the first time, complaint data has been broken out by metropolitan statistical areas with populations greater than 100,000. Breakout data for more than 350 metropolitan areas can be found at http:\/\/www.consumer.gov\/sentinel<\/a>. And this year, complaint data has been sorted into16 categories. They are:<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Rank<\/td>\nTop Categories<\/td>\nComplaints<\/td>\n%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
1<\/td>\nIdentity Theft<\/td>\n246,035<\/td>\n36%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
2<\/td>\nShop-at-Home\/Catalog Sales<\/td>\n46,995<\/td>\n7%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
3<\/td>\nPrizes\/Sweepstakes and Lotteries<\/td>\n45,587<\/td>\n7%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
4<\/td>\nInternet Services and Computer Complaints<\/td>\n41,243<\/td>\n6%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
5<\/td>\nInternet Auctions<\/td>\n32,832<\/td>\n5%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
6<\/td>\nForeign Money Offers<\/td>\n20,411<\/td>\n3%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
7<\/td>\nAdvance-Fee Loans and Credit Protection\/Repair<\/td>\n10,857<\/td>\n2%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
8<\/td>\nMagazines and Buyers Clubs<\/td>\n8,924<\/td>\n1%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
9<\/td>\nTelephone Services<\/td>\n8,165<\/td>\n1%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
10<\/td>\nHealth Care<\/td>\n7,467<\/td>\n1%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
11<\/td>\nBusiness Opportunities and Work-at-Home Plans<\/td>\n7,460<\/td>\n1%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
12<\/td>\nTravel, Vacations, and Timeshare<\/td>\n6,712<\/td>\n1%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
13<\/td>\nOffice Supplies and Services<\/td>\n5,723<\/td>\n1%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
14<\/td>\nGrants: Scholarships\/Educational & Non-Educational<\/td>\n5,310<\/td>\n1%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
15<\/td>\nEmployment Agencies\/Job Counselors\/Overseas Work<\/td>\n4,485<\/td>\n1%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
16<\/td>\nInvestments<\/td>\n3,630<\/td>\n1%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
<\/td>\nOther Coded Complaints<\/td>\n12,399<\/td>\n2%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n

This year, one major data contributor changed the way in which it codes complaints, and did not code many of its complaints, so comparisons with previous years\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 complaint categories are difficult.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For the seventh year in a row, identity theft tops the FTC’s Annual List of Top Consumer Complaints. http:\/\/ftc.gov\/opa\/2007\/02\/topcomplaints.htm :O accounting for 36 percent of the 674,354 complaints received between January 1 and December 31, 2006. Other categories near the top of the fraud complaint list include shop-at-home\/catalog sales; prizes, sweepstakes and lotteries; Internet services […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[20],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/scamdex.com\/ScamBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/scamdex.com\/ScamBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/scamdex.com\/ScamBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scamdex.com\/ScamBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scamdex.com\/ScamBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=139"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/scamdex.com\/ScamBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/scamdex.com\/ScamBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=139"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scamdex.com\/ScamBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=139"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scamdex.com\/ScamBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=139"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}