Antitrust Law Daily Wrap Up, CONSUMER PROTECTION NEWS: Identity theft, imposter scams top FTC consumer complaints, (Mar 2, 2015)

While identity theft triggered the most consumer complaints for the 15th consecutive year, 2014 also saw a large increase in complaints of so-called imposter scams, the FTC reported on February 27.

These findings appear in the just-released 2014 Consumer Sentinel Network Data Book, produced annually by the Federal Trade Commission based upon consumer complaints filed with their Consumer Sentinel Network and other state and local government agencies.

Imposter scams—in which con artists impersonate government officials or others—moved into third place on the list of consumer complaints, entering the top three complaint categories for the first time. The increase in imposter scams was led by a sharp jump in complaints about IRS and other government imposter scams.

“While identity theft remains a huge issue, consumers should also keep a close eye out for imposter scams,” said Jessica Rich, Director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection. “Whether it’s pretending to be the IRS during tax season, or making false promises of a lottery win, scammers are increasingly sophisticated in their efforts to deceive consumers, but the FTC will continue working to shut these scammers down.”

In 2014, 2,582,851 complaints were entered into the Consumer Sentinel Network. Florida was the top source of complaints per capita both for identity theft, and fraud and other complaints. For fraud and other complaints, Georgia and Nevada had the second and third highest per capita complaint rates, while Washington and Oregon were in the second and third position for identity theft complaints.

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