FTC Commissioners Testify Before Senate Committee on Enforcement Efforts to Combat Fraud

Consumer Finance FTC Privacy/Cyber Risk & Data Security Congress U.S. Senate UDAAP

On March 21, Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Acting Chairman Maureen K. Ohlhausen and Commissioner Terrell McSweeny testified before the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation’s Subcommittee on Consumer Protection, Product Safety, and Data Security to describe the agency’s law enforcement work to combat fraud. The testimony noted that in the past year, the agency obtained judgments of more than $11.9 billion to consumers “harmed by deceptive and unfair business practices” and received more than three million consumer complaints. Commissioner Terrell McSweeny noted that the “top three categories of complaints were debt collection, impostor frauds, and identity theft,” and that for the first time “imposter scam complaints . . . surpassed the number of identity theft complaints.” FTC Acting Chairman Maureen K. Ohlhausen also presented testimony and emphasized two populations in particular—military consumers and small businesses—both of whom are attractive targets for fraudsters, and for whom the agency actively works with to provide fraud recognition tools to prevent future victims. Also discussed at the hearing was the creation of the Office of Technology Research and Investigation to help the agency “keep abreast of technology changes affecting consumers” as well as the agency’s fraud prevention and education outreach initiatives that impact “tens of millions of people and businesses each year.”