Bankruptcy

FTC: Identity Theft Top Complaint in 2009; Potential Data Breach

By Chris Kramer

The Federal Trade Commission recently issued its annual report on consumer complaints filed in the last 12 months (summary available here, for the complete report, see below).

Identity theft was by far the largest complaint category, concerning 21 percent of all complaints filed. The top fifteen list looks like this:

• Identity theft (21 percent)
• Third party and creditor debt collection (nine percent)
• Internet services (six percent)
• Shop-at-home and catalog sales (six percent)
• Foreign money offers and counterfeit check scams (five percent)
• Internet auctions (four percent)
• Credit cards (three percent)
• Prizes, sweepstakes and lotteries (three percent)
• Advance-fee loans and credit protection/repair (three percent)
• Banks and Lenders (two percent)
• Credit bureaus, information furnishers and report users (two percent)
• Television and electronic media (two percent)
• Health care (two percent)
• Business opportunities, employment agencies and work-at-home plans (two percent)
• Computer equipment and software (two percent)

The FTC reports that identity theft complaints also constituted the largest single group of consumer worries last year, but have dropped as an overall percentage of the whole. In addition to the release of 2009?s data, the FTC has posted an animated video detailing how and when to file a complaint (available here).

A Potential Data Breach You Should Know About

In another recent news release, the FTC noted that it has warned almost 100 companies that information they store on peer-to-peer websites (used for everything from playing video games to sharing text, audio and video files to conducting online phone calls) may be vulnerable to data breaches.

Specifically, if peer-to-peer (P2P) software is improperly configured, any sensitive data may be accessible to anyone on the network. This presents a huge security risk, and could lead to identity theft or other costly and frustrating scams.

What this could mean for you is that, if you have given your personal information to one of the companies in question, your information could be at risk.

While no companies have necessarily broken the FTC?s regulations regarding storage of sensitive information, some may be at risk for significant future data breaches.

Additional Resources

FTC 2009 Full Report on Consumer Complaints.

Full post as published by The Bankruptcy Blog on March 07, 2010 (boomark / email).