Rent-to-own News - RTO absent in consumer complaint database

In perhaps the most comprehensive database of consumer complaints available, the rent to own industry has nary a mention indicating the industry is keeping its six million customers satisfied.

The Federal Trade Commission database -- the Consumer Sentinel Network (CSN) -- is a secure online database of millions of consumer complaints available only to law enforcement.

In addition to storing complaints received by the FTC, the CSN also includes complaints filed with the Internet Crime Complaint Center, Better Business Bureaus, the Canadian Anti- Fraud Centre, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, the Identity Theft Assistance Center, and the National Fraud Information Center, among others.

Download the data book here.

This year, CSN also began receiving complaints from the North Carolina Department of Justice, the Idaho and Mississippi Attorneys General, the Minnesota Department of Public Safety, the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights, the Center for Democracy and Technology, Publishers Clearing House, MoneyGram International and PrivacyStar.

The 2010 Consumer Sentinel Network Data Book, which breaks down complaints by type and state, is based on unverified complaints reported by consumers. The data is not based on a consumer survey.

For more information about the Consumer Sentinel Network, visit www.FTC.gov/sentinel. Law enforcement personnel may join CSN at Register.ConsumerSentinel.gov.

Executive Summary Consumer Sentinel Network Data Book
January – December 2010

• The Consumer Sentinel Network (CSN) contains over 6.1 million complaints dating from calendar year 2006 through calendar year 2010. There are over 7.8 million do-not-call complaints from this same time period.
• The CSN received over 1.3 million complaints during calendar year 2010: 54% fraud complaints; 19% identity theft complaints; and 27% other types of complaints.
• Identity theft was the number one complaint category in the CSN for calendar year 2010 with 19% of the overall complaints, followed by Debt Collection (11%); Internet Services (5%); Prizes, Sweepstakes and Lotteries (5%); Shop-at-Home and Catalog Sales (4%); Impostor Scams (4%); Internet Auction (4%); Foreign Money Offers and Counterfeit Check Scams (3%); Telephone and Mobile Services (3%); and Credit Cards (2%). The complete ranking of all thirty complaint categories is listed on page six of this report.

Fraud

• A total of 725,087 CSN 2010 complaints were fraud-related. Consumers reported paying over $1.7 billion in those fraud complaints; the median amount paid was $594. Eighty-six percent of the consumers who reported a fraud-related complaint also reported an amount paid.
• Sixty percent of all fraud-related complaints reported the method of initial contact. Of those complaints, 45% said email, while another 11% said an Internet website. Only 10% of those consumers reported mail as the initial point of contact.Colorado is the state with the highest per capita rate of reported fraud and other types of complaints, followed by Maryland and Nevada.

Identity Theft

• Government documents/benefits fraud (19%) was the most common form of reported identity theft, followed by credit card fraud (15%), phone or utilities fraud (14%), and employment fraud (11%). Other significant categories of identity theft reported by victims were bank fraud (10%) and loan fraud (4%).
• Government documents/benefits fraud increased 4 percentage points since calendar year 2008; identity theft-related credit card fraud, on the other hand, declined 5 percentage points since calendar year 2008.
• Forty-two percent of identity theft complainants reported whether they contacted law enforcement. Of those victims, 72% notified a police department. Sixty-two percent indicated a report was taken.
• Florida is the state with the highest per capita rate of reported identity theft complaints, followed by Arizona and California.

Download report here.