NCJ Number
213668
Date Published
January 2004
Length
73 pages
Annotation
This report details the consumer fraud and identity theft complaints reported to law enforcement and other organizations in the United States between January and December 2003.
Abstract
Between January and December 2003 the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) received 516,740 consumer complaints, up from 404,000 in 2002. Of these complaints, 301,835 were fraud complaints and 214,905 were identity theft complaints. Identity theft complaints increased 2 percent between 2002 and 2003. The most common identity theft complaint involved credit card fraud, followed by phone or utility fraud, employment-related fraud, government document or benefit fraud, and loan fraud. Fraud victims in 2003 reported losses totaling $437,463,950, with the median loss coming to $228. Internet related fraud accounted for 55 percent of all fraud reports in 2003, up from 45 percent in 2002. Victims of Internet related fraud reported losses of nearly $200,000,000 in 2003, with the median loss coming to $195. The report also offers a series of graphs and tables depicting fraud and identity theft trends, along with major metropolitan areas rankings for fraud and identity theft complains, and detailed State trends. Tables, figures, appendixes