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This spring brings breezy picnics, azaleas in
bloom, and the first major overhaul of the Consumer Sentinel Network in a
decade. In June, the FTC will launch
Sentinel 3.0, with key upgrades such as new analytical and visualization tools,
phrase cloud and phrase trending, and search results that will personalize user
experiences. Please stand by for the
announcement of multiple live training sessions. |
The
FTC’s Consumer
Sentinel Network Data Book for 2016 indicates that consumer reporting of
identity theft, government imposter scams, and redirection of government
benefit scams are on the increase.
Consumers lodged 406,500 government impostor complaints in 2016, up from
353,000 in 2015 – a 15 percent increase, which included imposters who claimed
to be FTC officials or employees.
Moreover, for the first time, imposter scams surpassed identity theft
complaints as the second highest category of consumer complaints in 2016. These scammers often victimize particular
populations, including the elderly, immigrant communities, and military
consumers.
On
April 24, 2017, the Sentinel manager attended the National Cyber Crime
Conference in Norwood, Massachusetts, which drew about 600 law enforcement
members who were investigators, prosecutors, and technical staff such as
forensic examiners. The Sentinel manager
conducted a late morning session on using Sentinel to stop cybercrime, defined as
computer-related crime. The chief threat
identified at this conference was ransomware, particularly the Cerber
family. Other top threats were malicious
spam and impostor scams. |
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The
Bureau of Consumer Protection has collaborated with the FTC Office of Inspector
General (OIG) and other OIGs to identify opportunities to boost OIG
investigations of consumer fraud. The
objectives of the OIG’s ongoing collaboration are to ensure that the OIG community
is aware of and uses Sentinel and to identify opportunities to expand Sentinel’s
database with consumer complaints lodged with other federal agencies. The manager has provided tutorials on
Sentinel’s upgraded tools for searching common schemes, identifying
complainants and witnesses, and isolating key fraud indicators, such as
provider names and other information used to fraudulently obtain government
benefits or perpetrate other consumer scams.
A fraction of consumers file complaints with the
FTC as informants. You can search for
informants in Sentinel. In Advanced
Search, locate “Contact Type” and select “Informant.” Hold down the Control key, and select
“Informant” as well as “Complaint.”
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One
way the FTC uses Sentinel is to stop recidivist scams. In the case Dayton Family
Productions,
the FTC’s Enforcement Division used Sentinel to identify deceptive acts and
practices in violation of a 1998 order for permanent injunction in connection
with telemarketing. In that case, the
entity misrepresented to consumers that they won a valuable prize and required
payment for it. FTC staff used Sentinel
to identify and interview consumer witnesses; the case investigator also
conducted a limited complaint analysis that aided in obtaining a Temporary
Restraining Order and Preliminary Injunction.
In another case, Max Results
Marketing,
the defendants operated call centers that contacted consumers – often veterans,
older Americans, or people in debt – with promises of grants from the
government or corporations. Supposedly
to determine the amount of the grant, the telemarketers asked consumers for
their income, driver’s license number, home value, credit card debt, available
credit, access to savings and retirement funds, and other sensitive
information. Information in the Sentinel
database helped link phone numbers to the identified boiler rooms and helped show
the court that the scam targeted elderly consumers.
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In
March, the FTC joined the National Association of State Charities Officials in
hosting and presenting “Give & Take:
Consumers, Contributions, and Charity,” a conference focused on consumer
protection issues in charitable giving. The
workshop featured discussions of crowd-funding and cause marketing as well as
panels with sector leaders from Guidestar, the Bill and Melinda Gates
Foundation, Independent Sector, and the BBB Wise Giving Alliance discussing how
to protect donors from fraud. Event
materials are available at the link above.
A non-public law enforcement section featured training sessions on online and
mobile fundraising techniques, how third parties like Charity Navigator, the
BBB Wise Giving Alliance, and GoFundMe identify fraudulent actors, and
opportunities for FTC staff and state assistant attorneys general to analyze
and discuss fundraising fraud and other issues of mutual concern.
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The
Federal Trade Commission held a conference on May 24, 2017, in Washington, D.C.
to examine the state of identity theft. FTC
Acting Chairman Ohlhausen delivered keynote remarks at the “Planning for the
Future” conference (final agenda). The event brought together industry
representatives, consumer advocates, government officials, and others.
The
daylong conference included panel discussions on how identity thieves acquire
and use consumer information, how websites trade in stolen consumer
information, the impact of identity theft on financial services, health care
and other sectors, the challenges that identity theft victims face, and
resources available to identity theft victims.
In addition, FTC technical experts gave a presentation describing how malicious
actors use consumer data available online.
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The
FTC is working on adding more data contributors to Sentinel. If you have consumer complaint data that you
contribute into Sentinel, you will be able to use Sentinel’s new analytical
tools to mine your data. You will also help
fellow Sentinel members boost their law enforcement capabilities by sharing this
data. Contact sentinel@ftc.gov for details.
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Order free FTC materials at ftc.gov/bulkorder.
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Share any of FTC’s free resources and tips in your programs, on your website, and with your social networks.
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