Identity Theft Tops FTC List of Consumer Complaints in 2011

This posting was written by Darius Sturmer, Editor of CCH Trade Regulation Reporter.

For the 12th year in a row, identity theft complaints topped the FTC’s list of top consumer complaints received by the agency. The FTC released the list of complaints entered into its Consumer Sentinel database over the prior year on February 28.

Of more than 1.8 million complaints filed in 2011, 279,156 (15 percent) were identity theft complaints. Nearly 25 percent of the identity theft complaints concerned tax-related or wage-related fraud.

The next nine complaint categories were: debt collection (10 percent); prizes, sweepstakes, and lotteries (6 percent); shop-at-home and catalog sales (5 percent); banks and lenders (5 percent); Internet services (5 percent); auto related complaints (4 percent); imposter scams (4 percent); telephone and mobile services (4 percent); and advance-fee loans and credit protection/repair (3 percent).

The FTC’s Consumer Sentinel Network report appears here.