Markets Wired

The Federal Trade Commission is seeking public comment on a planned survey on the prevalence of consumer fraud in the United States. The survey is a follow-up to two previous surveys conducted in 2003 and 2005, that are reported in “Consumer Fraud in the United States: An FTC Survey,” and “Consumer Fraud in the United States: The Second FTC Survey.” The second survey showed that 30.2 million adults – 13.5 percent of the adult population – were victims of fraud during the year studied.

As outlined in a Federal Register Notice, the FTC proposes to survey a nationwide randomly-selected sample of consumers ages 18 and over. The survey would be conducted by telephone and participation would be voluntary. The results will assist the FTC in determining the incidence of consumer fraud, and whether the type and frequency of consumer fraud is changing. This information will inform the FTC about how best to combat consumer fraud.

Federal law requires that government agencies obtain Office of Management and Budget approval to collect information from the public, and requires agencies to seek public comment before seeking approval. Comments will be accepted for 60 days, until November 1, 2010.

Copies of the Federal Register Notice are available from the FTC’s website at http://www.ftc.gov and from the FTC’s Consumer Response Center, Room 130, 600 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W., Washington, DC 20580. Call toll-free: 1-877-FTC-HELP.

(fraud)