Consumer Sentinel collects information about consumer fraud and identity theft from the FTC and over 115 other organizations and makes it available to law enforcement partners across the nation and throughout the world for use in their investigations. Launched in 1997, the Sentinel database now includes over 3.5 million complaints. Some future data transfers from other organizations will contain complaints from 2006 but have not yet been received. Accordingly, the total number of complaints reflected in this report may increase over the course of the next few months. The addition of complaints from other data contributors is also reflected in the larger totals from previous years than were reported in earlier FTC reports.
FTC/Sentinel Database: Consumer Fraud and Identity Theft Complaint Data, 2007
- About two-thirds of households experiencing identity theft reported some type of a monetary loss as a result of theft. The average loss was $1,290. Some households for which misuse was still ongoing at the time of the interview may have continued to suffer losses.
About 1 in 6 victimized households had to pay higher interest rates as the result of identity theft, and 1 in 9 households were denied phone or utility service. Households were equally likely to be turned down for insurance or pay higher rates.
- The average resolution time for resolving fraud cases has increased from 33 hours in 2003 to 40 hours in 2006.
The average fraud amount per victim increased 21.6% to $6,383 since 2003.
The annual amount of identity fraud is $56.6 billion, a 6.4% increase from 2003.
