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Identity theft tops list of consumer fraud for 2010

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Identity theft continued to be a significant problem for U.S. consumers in 2010, ranking as the top complaint filed with the Federal Trade Commission for the year.

The FTC on Tuesday released a list of the top 10 consumer complaints it received in 2010. For the 11th consecutive year, identity theft was at the top of the list, with more than 250,000 complaints.

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The most common identity theft complaint involved criminals who used a victim’s personal information in order to receive government benefits. The second most common type of identity theft involved the unauthorized use of a victim’s identity to obtain credit cards.

Identity theft was the subject of 19% of all complaints filed with the FTC in 2010.

Other problem areas on the list were debt collection, lottery scams and a new addition to the list, impostor scams, in which someone pretending to be a victim’s friend or relative asks for money to resolve a fabricated crisis.

-- Stuart Pfeifer

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