Identity Theft No. 1 Consumer Complaint According to the Federal Trade Commission

Yesterday, the Federal Trade Commission issued its top consumer complaints for 2009, which shows that while identity theft remains the top complaint category, identity theft complaints declined 5 percentage points from 2008. Overall, of the 1.3 million complaints the agency received last year, 21 percent were for identity theft. Debt collection agencies ranked second, with 9 percent of complaints, according to the Consumer Sentinel Network Data Book released Wednesday.

While this encouraging that there has been a 5 percent decline, the reality is that identity theft continues to be major problem. And, these findings very much reinforce the recent findings of the Javelin Strategy & Research’s “2010 Identity Fraud Survey Report,” which found that the number of identity fraud victims in the United States increased 12 percent to 11.1 million adults in 2009, while the total annual fraud amount increased by 12.5 percent to $54 billion.

And, if you do find yourself becoming a victim of identity theft, check out this video that the FTC produced about how to file a complaint with the agency: