 Please
join us for a Sentinel Advanced Training Session on Tuesday, May 1st at 12
PM EST. It will last one hour and focus
on the Spotlight and Explore Complaint Relationships features. If you are new to Sentinel, Basic Training
will be on Wednesday, May 9th 12-1:15 PM EST.
Simply email sentinel@ftc.gov to reserve a
spot for either session.
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The
Federal Trade Commission has released its Consumer Sentinel Network
Data Book
for 2017. This Data Book summarizes all
of the consumer complaints the FTC received during 2017. The FTC received complaints from 2.68 million
consumers in 2017, a decrease from 2016 when 2.98 million consumers submitted
complaints. The annual report, which does not include National Do Not
Call Registry complaints, provides national and state-by-state data on consumer
complaints. Although the number of complaints declined, consumers
reported losing a total of $905 million to fraud in 2017, which was $63 million
more than in 2016.
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In
2018, the Sentinel Team has conducted 15 outreach and training sessions for
over 300 people, most recently at the National Cyber Crime Conference in
Massachusetts. You can find future
training session notices by logging onto Sentinel. Need quicker help? There is a short online video when you log in, as well as various tipsheets in
the Help section. Check out the tipsheets
on Search, Download, Spotlights, and Graph Analytics.
New
sources of complaint data are on the way.
We have recently added complaints from the AARP Fraud Watch Network and New
York Attorney General’s Office. This
spring, the Nebraska Attorney General’s Office will also share complaints. Remember that you can search for complaints
submitted by specific data contributors in Advanced Search or by using the
Complaint Source navigator (found on the lower left side bar in the Search
Results page).
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The
product service codes are the Sentinel complaint categories that define the
good or service offered to the consumer.
We are adding new technical ones this year, such as broadband, connected
devices, digital media, malware, and negative online reviews. Please note that this change may have an impact on your
existing Spotlights. |
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In late March, the FTC filed a complaint and motion for preliminary
injunction in federal district court alleging that Alliance Security Inc., a
home security installation company, and its founder, directly and through its
authorized telemarketers, called millions of consumers whose numbers are on the
National Do Not Call Registry. Alliance, two of its authorized telemarketers,
and their principals have agreed to settle FTC charges that they made illegal
calls.
According
to the FTC, Alliance and its CEO and founder Jasjit “Jay” Gotra are
recidivist violators of the Commission’s Telemarketing Sales Rule. Gotra
previously operated Alliance under the name Versatile Marketing Solutions,
Inc., and settled FTC telemarketing- and robocall-related charges against them
in a court
order announced in April 2014. In the recent action, the FTC alleges
Alliance and Gotra never complied with the 2014 court order.
 The Federal Trade Commission is teaming up with the Internal Revenue Service to make it easier for consumers to report tax-related identity theft and to receive assistance to help recover.
The IRS will now allow consumers to report identity theft to the IRS electronically through the FTC’s IdentityTheft.gov website. Tax-related identity theft happens when someone uses your stolen Social Security number to file a tax return and claim your refund. Victims of tax-related identity theft may need to file the IRS Identity Theft Affidavit, also known as IRS Form 14039, so the IRS can begin resolving the problem. Prior to January of 2018, consumers could only file IRS Form 14039 by printing and mailing the form.
Under the new FTC-IRS initiative, IdentityTheft.gov is the only place where consumers can submit an IRS Form 14039 electronically. A new FTC blog post provides more detail about how the process works.
Identitytheft.gov allows consumers to report identity theft and to receive a personal recovery plan. Consumers can also obtain an Identity Theft Report that can be used in place of a police report to help clear their credit reports of fraudulent information, and customized letters they can send to creditors, debt collectors, and others to help recover from identity theft causes.
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