The Sentinel Team hopes that you and yours are safe and well in this time. You already know the drill about washing your hands and social distancing, but did you know about the FTC’s coronavirus scam resources? Check ftc.gov/coronavirus to learn more about the agency’s consumer protection activities and enforcement actions. Our blog has important consumer education information. Thanks to our Data Analysis Team, you can even see current data trends on coronavirus complaints. And when you log onto Sentinel, there is a coronavirus tipsheet and Spotlight already available for you.
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We’re happy to see that Sentinel usage has peaked to the highest level with the interest in coronavirus scams. Below are the next training sessions: you can register at sentinel@ftc.gov.
- Tuesday, April 21st, 3:00-4:10 PM EST
- Wednesday, April 29th, 3:00-4:10 PM EST
- Thursday, May 7th, 2:00-3:10 PM EST
Given all the new users, we want to remind you about the responsibilities laid out in full in the online security tutorial and the Sentinel agreement. Some key points are below:
- The information in Sentinel is law enforcement sensitive. You can share this information in full only with other Sentinel member agencies.
- If you want to share information with another law enforcement agency outside of the Network (the above list), please contact sentinel@ftc.gov.
- If you download information, you need to delete the information after 90 days unless you really still need it for your work.
- If you print anything out, you need to secure it.
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The Sentinel Team welcomes the Connecticut Department of Consumer Protection as a data contributor and is currently working with the National Center for Disaster Fraud, which has volunteered to contribute its coronavirus scam complaints. Does your agency collect data that it would like to contribute? Please contact us at sentinel@ftc.gov.
You asked, and we listened: it’s now possible to save your complaint redaction settings when downloading complaints. You can find the redaction settings by clicking on your name when you log onto Sentinel. Please note that if you don’t need to download a field, you will want to redact it for security and privacy.
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The Sentinel Team was happy to assist with data analysis for a recent successful case where the Department of Justice sought temporary restraining orders against five companies and three individuals who were been accused of carrying hundreds of millions of illegal robocalls to the United States. In the case, the victims were usually threatened with false legal action to spook them into handing over their money. |
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At present, the FTC will host PrivacyCon, a privacy and security forum on July 21st in Washington, DC. It’s free and open to the public; we’ll webcast the event live.
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