1.1: Identify Fraud, Deception, and Unfair Practices

Identify fraud, deception, and unfair practices that cause the greatest consumer injury

Other Information:

To fulfill its consumer protection mission, the FTC must identify consumer protection problems and trends in the fast-changing, increasingly global marketplace. The agency strives to understand the issues affecting consumers, including any newly emerging methods of fraud or deceit, to address these problems more effectively. The FTC reports this information to other law enforcement authorities and encourages those authorities to assist in its efforts, either independently or jointly. In this way, the FTC can leverage its resources by ensuring multiple “cops on the beat.” To fulfill this objective, the FTC is using new technologies creatively and building on its broad base of private and public sector partners. The agency continues to collect consumer complaint information directly through four principal sources: (1) a toll-free helpline (1-877-FTC HELP); (2) an identity theft hotline (1-877-ID-THEFT); (3) the National Do Not Call Registry (www.donotcall.gov); and (4) the online consumer complaint forms that support each of these efforts, as well as online complaint forms dedicated to members of the U.S. Armed Forces and to cross-border fraud complaints. In addition, the FTC continues to gather consumer complaint information from other sources, including law enforcement agencies, Better Business Bureaus, and private entities. The agency makes this and other information available online to its law enforcement partners through a secure Internet Web site. Currently, that site is accessed by more than 1,500 law enforcement partner agencies in the United States, Canada, and Australia. The FTC’s law enforcement partners and other groups also identify issue areas and refer targets. In addition, the agency augments identification of targets from its database with traditional strategies for generating enforcement leads. Strategies: • Continue to upgrade and enhance the online consumer complaint database and Web site to respond to increasing demands and maintain it as the premier consumer protection law enforcement information resource. • Improve and expand the tools that are provided through this Web site by pulling multiple systems together onto one platform and making it the gateway for law enforcement officials who want information about the consumer protection problems affecting consumers. • Expand the pool of entities that make their consumer complaint data available to the law enforcement community through this Web site. • Improve information sharing with law enforcement partners through this Web site. • Continue outreach to international law enforcement partners and organizations to improve information sharing. • Continue to strengthen the FTC’s capabilities to analyze the increasing volume of consumer complaints and augment complaints with other sources to develop case leads and identify new or emerging concerns. • Monitor the marketplace to identify illegal practices that may not be fully captured by the database, for example, through the FTC Internet Lab, spam database, Web surveys (surfs), and through consumer surveys, such as the recent fraud and identity theft surveys. • Ensure the quality, security, and integrity of the database and Web site information. Annual and Five-Year Performance Measures: - Collect and enter more than 1.05M complaints and inquiries into the consumer database a year by 2008; and more than 1.25M by 2011 - Determine if at least one-half of consumer protection law enforcement actions each year are responsive to the consumer complaint information gathered by the agency

Indicator(s):

Indicator:1

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