27796 Federal Register / Vol. 74, No. 111 / Thursday, June 11, 2009 / Notices 

1 The comment must be accompanied by an 

explicit request for confidential treatment, 

including the factual and legal basis for the request, 

and must identify the specific portions of the 

comment to be withheld from the public record. 

The request will be granted or denied by the 

Commission’s General Counsel, consistent with 

applicable law and the public interest. See FTC 

Rule 4.9(c), 16 CFR 4.9(c). 

laboratory to locate and recruit subjects 

and conduct the experiments. 

Staff will pre-test the experimental 

procedures with 9 subjects to ensure 

that the instructions provided to 

participants are clear and 

comprehensible, and that the 

experimental procedures are workable. 

Pre-test subjects will be drawn from 

FTC staff not involved with the study. 

B. Estimated Hours Burden 

The FTC plans to seek information 

from up to 250 respondents for 

approximately 90 minutes each; thus, 

approximately 375 hours in total. Pretesting hours are not included in the 

estimated burden because the pre-test 

subjects will be FTC employees. 

C. Estimated Costs Burden 

The cost per respondent should be 

negligible. Participation will not require 

start-up, capital, or labor expenditures 

by respondents. The above-noted 

contractor will recruit the student and 

community member subjects to 

participate in this study; subjects will be 

asked to respond to an initial 

recruitment email to participate 

voluntarily. Staff will compensate all 

subjects for their participation in the 90- 

minute study. Subjects will receive 

approximately $8 as a show-up fee; in 

addition, they will be compensated 

according to their choices for some of 

the tasks. Staff expects subjects to earn 

on average $22 for these tasks, with a 

range of approximately $12-$32, based 

on expectations of possible 

experimental outcomes. As such, 

subjects will receive approximately $20- 

$40 for the 90-minute study. 

By direction of the Commission. 

Donald S. Clark, 

Secretary 

[FR Doc. E9–13642 Filed 6–10–09: 8:45 am] 

[BILLING CODE 6750–01–S] 

FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION 

Agency Information Collection 

Activities; Proposed Collection; 

Comment Request 

AGENCY: Federal Trade Commission 

(‘‘FTC’’ or ‘‘Commission’’). 

ACTION: Notice. 

SUMMARY: The FTC intends to conduct 

two exploratory studies on consumer 

susceptibility to fraudulent and 

deceptive marketing. This research will 

be conducted to further the FTC’s 

mission of protecting consumers from 

unfair and deceptive marketing. Before 

gathering this information, the FTC is 

seeking public comments on its 

proposed research. This notice seeks 

comments on the Fraud Susceptibility 

Internet Panel Study, one of the two 

studies. The Commission is also seeking 

comments on the other study in a 

separate Federal Register notice. 

Comments will be considered before the 

FTC submits a request for Office of 

Management and Budget (OMB) review 

under the Paperwork Reduction Act 

(PRA). 

DATES: Comments must be submitted on 

or before August 10, 2009. 

ADDRESSES: Interested parties are 

invited to submit written comments 

electronically or in paper form. 

Comments should refer to ‘‘Fraud 

Susceptibility Internet Panel Study, FTC 

File No. P095500’’ to facilitate the 

organization of comments. Please note 

that your comment—including your 

name and your state—will be placed on 

the public record of this proceeding, 

including on the publicly accessible 

FTC Website, at (http://www.ftc.gov/os/ 

publiccomments.shtm). 

Because comments will be made 

public, they should not include any 

sensitive personal information, such as 

an individual’s Social Security Number; 

date of birth; driver’s license number or 

other state identification number, or 

foreign country equivalent; passport 

number; financial account number; or 

credit or debit card number. Comments 

also should not include any sensitive 

health information, such as medical 

records or other individually 

identifiable health information. In 

addition, comments should not include 

any ‘‘[t]rade secret or any commercial or 

financial information which is obtained 

from any person and which is privileged 

or confidential. . . .,’’ as provided in 

Section 6(f) of the Federal Trade 

Commission Act (‘‘FTC Act’’), 15 U.S.C. 

46(f), and FTC Rule 4.10(a)(2), 16 CFR 

4.10(a)(2). Comments containing 

material for which confidential 

treatment is requested must be filed in 

paper form, must be clearly labeled 

‘‘Confidential,’’ and must comply with 

FTC Rule 4.9(c), 16 CFR 4.9(c).1

Because paper mail addressed to the 

FTC is subject to delay due to 

heightened security screening, please 

consider submitting your comments in 

electronic form. Comments filed in 

electronic form should be submitted by 

using the following weblink: (https:// 

secure.commentworks.com/ftcfraudinternetpanel) (and following the 

instructions on the web-based form). To 

ensure that the Commission considers 

an electronic comment, you must file it 

on the web-based form at the weblink: 

(https://secure.commentworks.com/ftcfraudinternetpanel). If this Notice 

appears at (http://www.regulations.gov/ 

search/index.jsp), you may also file an 

electronic comment through that 

website. The Commission will consider 

all comments that regulations.gov 

forwards to it. You may also visit the 

FTC Website at http://www.ftc.gov to 

read the Notice and the news release 

describing it. 

A comment filed in paper form 

should include the reference Fraud 

Susceptibility Internet Panel Study, FTC 

File No. P095500’’ both in the text and 

on the envelope, and should be mailed 

or delivered to the following address: 

Federal Trade Commission, Office of the 

Secretary, Room H-135 (Annex J), 600 

Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, Washington, 

DC 20580. The FTC is requesting that 

any comment filed in paper form be sent 

by courier or overnight service, if 

possible, because U.S. postal mail in the 

Washington area and at the Commission 

is subject to delay due to heightened 

security precautions. 

The FTC Act and other laws the 

Commission administers permit the 

collection of public comments to 

consider and use in this proceeding as 

appropriate. The Commission will 

consider all timely and responsive 

public comments that it receives, 

whether filed in paper or electronic 

form. Comments received will be 

available to the public on the FTC 

Website, to the extent practicable, at 

(http://www.ftc.gov/os/ 

publiccomments.shtm). As a matter of 

discretion, the Commission makes every 

effort to remove home contact 

information for individuals from the 

public comments it receives before 

placing those comments on the FTC 

Website. More information, including 

routine uses permitted by the Privacy 

Act, may be found in the FTC’s privacy 

policy, at (http://www.ftc.gov/ftc/ 

privacy.shtm). 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Requests for additional information 

should be addressed to Keith B. 

Anderson, Economist, Bureau of 

Economics, Federal Trade Commission, 

600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, Mail 

Stop NJ-4136, Washington, DC 20580. 

Telephone: (202) 326-3428; e-mail: 

fraudinternetpanel@ftc.gov. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 


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Federal Register / Vol. 74, No. 111 / Thursday, June 11, 2009 / Notices 27797 

2 Information on the Fraud Forum is available at: 

(http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/workshops/fraudforum/ 

index.shtm). 

3 The Commission has published two staff reports 

describing the results of these surveys—Consumer 

Fraud in the United States: An FTC Survey 

(published August 2004 and available at (http:// 

www.ftc.gov/reports/consumerfraud/ 

040805confraudrpt.pdf) and Consumer Fraud in the 

United States: The Second FTC Survey (published 

in October 2007 and available at (http:// 

www.ftc.gov/opa/2007/10/fraud.pdf). 

4 The FTC recognizes, of course, that a sample 

drawn from an Internet panel does not represent a 

random sample of the U.S. population. However, 

the purpose of this study is to compare the 

experiences and attitudes of people with different 

characteristics rather than to estimate the 

percentage or number of U.S. consumers who have 

particular characteristics or experiences. As such, 

using an Internet panel should not pose significant 

problems. 

5 See Annamaria Lusardi, Financial Literacy: An 

Essential Tool for Informed Consumer Choice?, 

Working Paper, Joint Center for Housing Studies, 

Harvard University (2008), for examples of financial 

literacy questions similar to those the FTC is 

considering. 

6 Staff anticipates using standard risk aversion 

measurement methodologies akin to those in 

Charles Holt and Susan Laury, Risk Aversion and 

Incentive Effects, American Economic Review, 

December 2002, 1644-1655. Some changes may be 

made to the questions and question sequence since 

participants in this study will not receive actual 

cash payments reflecting the results of their 

decisions. 

7 Several academic articles report that people are 

more willing to take identical risks over monetary 

gambles if the risk is presented as an opportunity 

to escape losses rather than as a chance to gain. Our 

‘‘framing’’ methodologies may emulate those in 

Amos Tversky and Daniel Kahneman, The Framing 

of Decisions and the Psychology of Choice, Science, 

Vol. 211, No. 4481 (Jan. 30, 1981), 453-458. 

8 Staff anticipates using methodology similar to 

that in Stephan Meier and Charles Sprenger, 

Impatience and Credit Behavior: Evidence from a 

Field Experiment, Working Papers 07-3, Federal 

Reserve Bank of Boston (2007). 

9 Staff plans to use standard questions similar to 

those in Manju Puri and David Robinson, Optimism 

Continued 

I. Background 

As part of its consumer protection 

mission, the FTC has brought hundreds 

of cases targeting fraud, and has 

committed significant resources to 

educational initiatives designed to 

protect consumers from fraud. The 

Commission hosted a Fraud Forum2 on 

February 25-26, 2009 to examine fraud 

in the market place. The Commission 

also conducted telephone surveys in 

2003 and 2005 designed to measure the 

proportion of the U.S. adult population 

that has fallen victim to various 

consumer frauds.3 Despite this, 

surprisingly little is known about what 

determines consumers’ susceptibility to 

fraud. For example, the 2003 and 2005 

FTC Consumer Fraud surveys found 

that education was not a significant 

predictor of fraud victimization. 

Understanding when and why people 

are vulnerable to fraud would better 

inform the FTC’s substantial, ongoing 

efforts to fight fraud through law 

enforcement and consumer education. 

Any additional insights into how and 

why people fall victim to fraud could 

also help improve any future fraud 

surveys the Commission may undertake. 

The study being announced in this 

notice is a preliminary and exploratory 

step toward facilitating those efforts. 

The study is not intended to lead to 

enforcement actions; rather, study 

results may aid the FTC’s efforts to 

better target its enforcement actions and 

consumer education initiatives and 

improve future fraud surveys. 

Economic and psychological 

experiments have identified several 

decision-making biases, such as 

impulsivity, over-confidence, overoptimism, and loss aversion, that can 

cause inaccurate assessments of the 

risks, costs, and benefits of various 

choices. In the study announced in this 

notice, FTC staff proposes to conduct a 

survey using an Internet survey protocol 

to examine whether susceptibility to 

consumer fraud is related to these types 

of decision biases. Study results also 

might shed light on whether consumers 

with certain behavioral traits are more 

or less likely to be skeptical about 

advertisements and whether there is a 

relationship between ad skepticism and 

the likelihood of having been a victim 

of fraud. 

II. Paperwork Reduction Act 

As required by Section 3506(c)(2)(A) 

of the PRA, 44 U.S.C. 3501-21, the FTC 

is providing this opportunity for public 

comment before requesting that OMB 

approve the study. Under the PRA, 

federal agencies must obtain OMB 

approval for each collection of 

information they conduct or sponsor. 

‘‘Collection of information’’ means 

agency requests or requirements that 

members of the public submit reports, 

keep records, or provide information to 

a third party. 44 U.S.C. 3502(3); 5 CFR 

1320.3(c). 

Specifically, the FTC invites 

comments on: (1) whether the proposed 

collection of information is necessary 

for the proper performance of the 

functions of the FTC, including whether 

the information will have practical 

utility; (2) the accuracy of the FTC’s 

estimate of the burden of the proposed 

collection of information; (3) ways to 

enhance the quality, utility, and clarity 

of the information to be collected; and 

(4) ways to minimize the burden of 

collecting information on those who 

respond, including through the use of 

appropriate automated, electronic, 

mechanical, or other technological 

collection techniques or other forms of 

information technology, e.g., permitting 

electronic submission of responses. All 

comments should be filed as prescribed 

in the ADDRESSES section above, and 

must be received on or before August 

10, 2009. 

A. Description of the Collection of 

Information and Proposed Use 

The FTC proposes to conduct a survey 

which will include approximately 5,000 

interviews with individuals 

representing a large spectrum of the U.S. 

adult population. The survey will be 

conducted over the Internet, and 

participants will be drawn from an 

Internet survey panel maintained by a 

commercial survey firm that operates 

such panels. While the sample will not 

be nationally representative, it will still 

provide useful insights into consumer 

susceptibility to fraud.4

The study will examine whether 

participants have been the victim of 

certain forms of consumer fraud in the 

recent past. In addition, staff may 

attempt to measure consumer 

skepticism about advertisements, as 

well as consumer knowledge, risk 

attitudes, and impulsivity using existing 

methods from economics and 

psychological research. Staff may 

measure consumer knowledge using 

consumer literacy and financial literacy 

surveys 5 in order to test subjects’ 

marketplace understanding and 

sophistication. Staff seeks to determine 

if the presence of such knowledge and 

behavioral characteristics affects the 

likelihood a person will have been a 

victim of fraud. 

The study will measure subjects’ risk 

attitudes through a series of choices 

between smaller certain amounts of 

money and larger risky amounts.6 The 

study’s design may describe the product 

to some subjects as creating benefits, 

while presenting to other subjects nearly 

identical information depicted as a 

reduction in harm. Staff would then test 

whether fraud victims tend to be less 

likely to be risk-averse and/or lossaverse than non-victims. Staff also may 

seek to determine whether risk-averse 

and/or loss-averse subjects are 

particularly susceptible to fraudulent 

claims framed as opportunities to 

escape losses.7 The study may measure 

subjects’ impulsivity through a series of 

choices between smaller monetary 

amounts received sooner and larger 

amounts received later.8 Staff then 

would test to see if impulsive subjects 

are more likely to have been victims of 

fraud and/or are more susceptible to 

fraudulent claims. The study also may 

measure participants’ optimism 9 and 


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27798 Federal Register / Vol. 74, No. 111 / Thursday, June 11, 2009 / Notices 

and Economic Choice, Journal of Financial 

Economics, 2007, Vol. 86, 71-99. 

10 Staff may use the scale developed in Carl 

Obermiller and Eric Spangenberg, Development of 

a Scale to Measure Consumer Skepticism toward 

Advertising, Journal of Consumer Psychology, Vol. 

7, No. 2, 1998, 159-186. 

skepticism 10 to determine how these 

characteristics affect the likelihood that 

someone becomes a victim of consumer 

fraud. In addition, staff anticipates 

collecting demographic information 

from the surveyed subjects. 

B. Estimated Burden Hours 

The FTC plans to seek information 

from approximately 5,000 respondents 

using a questionnaire that should take 

no more than 30 minutes to complete. 

Prior to that, a pre-test of up to 100 

participants will be conducted. 

Allowing for an extra two minutes for 

questions unique to the pretest, the 

pretest should total no more than 32 

minutes to complete. Accordingly, the 

information collection burden of the 

Internet Panel study should total no 

more than 2,553 hours. Finally, the cost 

per respondent should be negligible. 

Participants will be compensated for 

their participation in the study using the 

contractor’s standard method of 

rewarding members of its Internet panel 

for survey participation. Participation is 

voluntary and will not require start-up, 

capital, or labor expenditures by 

respondents. 

By direction of the Commission. 

Donald S. Clark, 

Secretary 

[FR Doc. E9–13643 Filed 6–10–09: 8:45 am] 

[BILLING CODE 6750–01–S] 

GENERAL SERVICES 

ADMINISTRATION 

[OMB Control No. 3090–00xx] 

General Services Administration 

Acquisition Regulation; Submission 

for OMB Review; GSA Mentor-Prote ́ge ́

Program 

AGENCIES: Office of the Chief 

Acquisition Officer, General Services 

Administration (GSA). 

ACTION: Notice of request for a new 

information collection. 

SUMMARY: Under the provisions of the 

Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (44 

U.S.C. Chapter 35), the Regulatory 

Secretariat will be submitting to the 

Office of Management and Budget 

(OMB) a request to review and approve 

a new information collection concerning 

the GSA Mentor-Prote ́ge ́ Program, 

General Services Administration 

Acquisition Manual (GSAM). A request 

for public comments was published in 

the Federal Register at 73 FR 32669, 

June 10, 2008. No comments were 

received. 

Public comments are particularly 

invited on: Whether this collection of 

information is necessary; whether it will 

have practical utility; whether our 

estimate of the public burden of this 

collection of information is accurate, 

and based on valid assumptions and 

methodology; ways to enhance the 

quality, utility, and clarity of the 

information to be collected; and ways in 

which we can minimize the burden of 

the collection of information on those 

who are to respond, through the use of 

appropriate technological collection 

techniques or other forms of information 

technology. 

DATES: Submit comments on or before 

July 13, 2009. 

ADDRESSES: Submit comments regarding 

this burden estimate or any other aspect 

of this new information collection, 

including suggestions for reducing this 

burden to: General Services 

Administration (GSA) OMB Desk 

Officer, Room 10236, NEOB, 

Washington, DC 20503, and send a copy 

to the Regulatory Secretariat (VPR), 

1800 F Street NW., Room 4041, 

Washington, DC 20405. Please cite OMB 

Control No. 3090–00xx, GSA MentorProte ́ge ́ Program, in all correspondence. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Ms. 

Rhonda Cundiff, Procurement Analyst, 

Contract Policy Division, GSA, (202) 

501–4082. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

A. Purpose 

The GSA Mentor-Prote ́ge ́ Program is 

designed to encourage GSA prime 

contractors to assist small businesses, 

small disadvantaged businesses, 

women-owned small businesses, 

veteran-owned small businesses, 

service-disabled veteran-owned small 

businesses, and HUBZone small 

businesses in enhancing their 

capabilities to perform GSA contracts 

and subcontracts, foster the 

establishment of long-term business 

relationships between these small 

business entities and GSA prime 

contractors, and increase the overall 

number of small business entities that 

receive GSA contract and subcontract 

awards. 

B. Annual Reporting Burden 

Respondents: 300. 

Responses per Respondent: 4. 

Annual Responses: 1200. 

Hours per Response: 3. 

Total Burden Hours: 3600. 

Obtaining Copies of Proposals: 

Requesters may obtain a copy of the 

information collection documents from 

the General Services Administration, 

Regulatory Secretariat (VPR), 1800 F 

Street NW., Room 4041, Washington, 

DC 20405, telephone (202) 501–4755. 

Please cite OMB Control No. 3090–00xx, 

GSA Mentor-Prote ́ge ́ Program, in all 

correspondence. 

Dated: June 5, 2009. 

Al Matera, 

Director, Office of Acquisition Policy. 

[FR Doc. E9–13738 Filed 6–10–09; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 6820–EP–P 

DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE 

GENERAL SERVICES 

ADMINISTRATION 

NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND 

SPACE ADMINISTRATION 

[OMB Control No. 9000–0069] 

Federal Acquisition Regulation; 

Information Collection; Indirect Cost 

Rates 

Agencies: Department of Defense 

(DOD), General Services Administration 

(GSA), and National Aeronautics and 

Space Administration (NASA). 

ACTION: Notice of request for comments 

regarding a renewal to an existing OMB 

clearance. 

SUMMARY: Under the provisions of the 

Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (44 

U.S.C. Chapter 35), the Federal 

Acquisition Regulation (FAR) 

Regulatory Secretariat will be 

submitting to the Office of Management 

and Budget (OMB) a request to review 

and approve an extension of a currently 

approved information collection 

requirement concerning Indirect Cost 

Rates. 

Public comments are particularly 

invited on: Whether this collection of 

information is necessary; whether it will 

have practical utility; whether our 

estimate of the public burden of this 

collection of information is accurate, 

and based on valid assumptions and 

methodology; ways to enhance the 

quality, utility, and clarity of the 

information to be collected; and ways in 

which we can minimize the burden of 

the collection of information on those 

who are to respond, through the use of 

appropriate technological collection 

techniques or other forms of information 

technology. 

DATES: Submit comments on or before 

August 10, 2009. 


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