Fraud…Once Again the Number One Consumer Complaint Part 2 of 2

Top 2011 Consumer Complaints Reported to CSN database – Part 2

Part 1 discussed the fraud consumer complaints on the Consumer Sentinel Network (CSN) and this covers the identity theft complaints. This secured online data base network contains consumer complaints from numerous sources such as the Federal Trade Commission, state organizations, Federal agencies, and Better Business Bureaus (BBB) and is available to law enforcement.

Consumer complaints totaled 1,813,080 in 2011 and 1,460,368 in 2010 or an increase of 24 percent. The complaints were broken down into three main categories: fraud (55 %), identity theft (15 %) and other (30%).

Part 1 discussed the fraud highlights and this article and Part 2 covers identity theft.

Identity Theft Highlights

Identity theft represented 279,156 or 15 percent of the complaints. The main identity theft categories were government documents/benefits fraud (27%), credit card fraud (14 percent), phone or utilities fraud (13 percent), bank fraud (9 percent), employment fraud (8 percent) and loan fraud (3 percent).

Of those reporting identity theft complaints, 45 percent reported whether they contacted law enforcement. Of these victims, 70 percent notified the police and 57 percent said a report was taken.

The identity theft complaint segmentation differed somewhat from the fraud complaint group, with more complaints from the 19 and below age group and the 20 to 29 age group. The 20 to 29 age group was top followed by the 30 to 39 age group.

Identity theft complaints by age;

19 years and below 8 %

20 to 29 years 23%

30 to 39 years 21%

40 to 59 years 18%

50 to 59 years 15%

60 to 69 years 9%

70 years and above 6%

The states with the highest per capita rate of reported identity theft complaints were Florida, Georgia and California.

Top Ten Complaint types

The top ten of the thirty types of complaints were:

Identity theft 15%

Debt Collection 10%

Prizes, Sweepstakes and Lotteries 6%

Shop-at-Home and Catalog Sales 5%

Banks and Lenders 5%

Internet Services 5%

Auto Related Complaints 4%

Impostor Scams 4%

Telephone and Mobile Services 4%

Advance-Fee Loans and Credit Protection/Repair 3%

ACA response

Identity theft continues to be the top complaint and debt collection is second.  The Association of Credit and Collection Professionals International (ACA), the association representing collection and credit professionals, explained while they still ranked number two:

FTC complaints do not necessarily equal bad behavior.

More debt being collected = more contacts = more complaints.

New technology has made it easier for consumers to submit complaints.

There is a lack of consumer awareness about debt collection.

Consumers aren’t getting their complaints resolved.

Credit Expert Witness, John Ulzheimer, is the President of Consumer Education at SmartCredit.com, the credit blogger for Mint.com, and a Contributor for the National Foundation for Credit Counseling.  He is an expert on credit reporting, credit scoring and identity theft. Formerly of FICO, Equifax and Credit.com, John is the only recognized credit expert who actually comes from the credit industry.  Follow him on Twitter here.

Categorised in: Civil Penalty, Credit Cards, Credit Monitoring, Identity Theft, Money & Identity

This post was written by John Ulzheimer