More than 300,000 individuals made identity theft complaints to the Federal Trade Commission, allowing this category to retain the dubious crown as the number-one consumer complaint category for the ninth year in a row. Of more than 1.2 million complaints lodged in 2008, 313,982, or 26%, were related to identity theft.
Third-party and creditor-debt collection, with 104,642 complaints, was a distant second, followed by shop-at-home and catalog sales, which racked up 52,615 mentions. Internet services concerns generated 52,102 complaints, and foreign money offers and counterfeit check scams rounded out the top five, with 38,505 inquiries.
Credit bureaus, information furnishers and report users accounted for 34,940 complaints, while prizes, sweepstakes and lotteries generated 33,340. The top 10 was rounded out by television and electronic media (25,930); banks and lenders (22,890); and telecom equipment and mobile services (22,387).
Another 10 categories generated one or two percent of all complaints. These included computer equipment and software; business opportunities, employment agencies and work at home offers; Internet auctions; advance-fee loans and credit protection and repair; health care; auto-related complaints; travel, vacations and timeshares; credit cards; magazines and buyers clubs; and telephone services.
The Cynic
Network
