FTC issues annual summary of consumer complaints

Federal Issues FTC Consumer Finance Consumer Complaints Consumer Education Fraud Privacy/Cyber Risk & Data Security

On March 1, the FTC issued its annual summary on consumer complaints received by the agency over the past year, highlighting trends in various categories such as fraud and identity theft. The report, Consumer Sentinel Network Data Book 2017 (2017 Data Book), provides category breakdowns and national and state specific data extrapolated from the Consumer Sentinel Network (CSN)—a secure online database of millions of consumer complaints available only to law enforcement agencies. In compiling the 2017 Data Book, CSN collected and analyzed nearly 2.7 million consumer complaints—a decrease from the nearly 3 million complaints it received in 2016. However, total loses reported for 2017 increased by $63 million to nearly $905 million in total losses due to fraud.

The 2017 Data Book provides a breakdown of complaints sorted into 30 top categories. Highlights include the following:

• States. Florida, Georgia, and Nevada were the top states for fraud complaints, while Michigan, Florida, and California were the top states for identity theft complaints. 
• Top categories. While there were 1.1 million fraud reports filed overall (42.5 percent of all reports), debt collection remained the top complaint in 2017, amounting to 22.7 percent of all complaints. Identity theft (13.8 percent) and imposter scams (13 percent) rounded out the top three. “While we received fewer overall complaints in 2017, consumers reported losing more money to fraud than they did the year before,” said Tom Pahl, Acting Director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection in a press release issued by the agency. “This underscores the importance of the FTC’s work in educating consumers and cracking down on the scammers who try to take their money.” Rounding out the top ten consumer complaints for 2017 were: telephone and mobile services; banks and lenders; prizes, sweepstakes, and lotteries; shop-at-home and catalog sales; credit bureaus, information furnishers, and report users, auto related complaints, and television and electronic media.
• Military. Fraud and identify theft were the largest category of complaints from military consumers—the majority reporting imposter scams, credit card fraud, and bank fraud. Military retirees and veterans submitted the highest number of reports. 
• Fraud losses by age. The 2017 Data Book includes data broken out by age groups for the first time. Younger consumers aged 20-29 reported losing money to fraud more than consumers over age 70, but for older consumers who reported losing money, the median amount lost was greater.

Additional information about the 2017 Data Book is available here.