What are We Complaining about?

The Federal Trade Commission yesterday released its annual report (click here to download the report) on top consumer complaints for 2006. The report found that for the seventh year in a row, “identity theft tops the list, accounting for 36 percent of the 674,354 complaints received between January 1 and December 31, 2006.” And consumers paid heavy price for fraud related losses. According to FTC data, consumers reported fraud losses of more than $1.1 billion in 2006, with a median loss of $500. The breakdown of 2006 complaints into 16 categories looks like this:

For ID theft, the 18 to 39 age group is especially vulnerable, accounting for 52% of all the ID theft complaints in 2006:

One way to fight ID theft is to stay on top of your credit information by checking your credit reports regularly for FREE, but make sure you get them from the ONLY authorized source, annualcreditreport.com. To prevent mis-spelling that could lead to places like freecreditreport.com (if you Google “free credit report,” you will find freecreditreport.com tops the search returns), go directly to FTC website, ftc.gov, and find the blue FREE Annual Credit Reports button on the left side. I order a report for both of us every four months from one of the three credit agencies instead of getting them all at once to maximize the benefit.

If you enjoyed reading this post, subscribe to the RSS feed or get it via email delivery.

Popularity: 9% [?]

If you enjoyed reading this post, please consider subscribing to my full RSS feed. You can also subscribe by email to have daily updates delivered right to your inbox.

• Ready to buy stocks/ETF with zero commission? Check out the Zecco review and try Zecco Trading with these Zecco promotion codes to get 10 free trades/month.
• Seeking higher returns for your cash? Take a look at the latest interest rates from leading online banks and find out where to get the most for your money.
• Earn up to 5% cash back from these cash back credit cards while shopping at gas stations, grocery stores, or online.