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FTC Says Identity Theft Was the Number One Consumer Complaint in 2014 |
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February 27, 2015 – The FTC has announced that identity theft was the number one consumer complaint received by the agency last year. That’s no real surprise because it has been the number one consumer complaint for 15 years now. But it may no longer be the fastest growing crime. Debt collection scams were the second largest consumer complaint of 2014; with 160,000 reported incidents. That’s 100,000 more than were reported in 2013.
And for the first time, imposter scams also jumped into the top five complains received by the agency. These are scams where the caller may pose as being from the IRS, the Social Security Administration or some other agency in an attempt to defraud consumers.
In a related report from the Medical Identity Fraud Alliance (MIFA) conducted by the Poneman Institute, medical identity theft increased approximately 22% in 2014. Again, that isn’t a surprise because medical records can be worth many times more than financial records when sold on the black market.
byJim Malmberg
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Identity Theft 
