In sum, fraud promoters pose a significant threat to average consumers and to the economy. The FTC's recent experience supports this estimate. Although economists agree that reported consumer fraud is likely to represent only a fraction of actual consumer fraud in the U.S., complaints and questions about it are significant and steady. The NFIC receives about 10,500 calls from consumers a month, or 350 calls a day. About 28 percent of these consumers ultimately file complaints of fraud with the NFIC, at a rate of 100 complaints a day.
Consumer fraud knows no geographic boundaries.
While fraud evolved, anti-fraud responses in 1996 grew as well. Thus, as 1996 began, the TSR signaled that federal and state law enforcement agencies were prepared to cooperate and innovate in efforts to attack fraud. The FTC, with federal and state law enforcement partners, brought over 200 actions against perpetrators of fraud. As part of this effort, the FTC and other law enforcement partners were asked to use their authority to shut down boiler rooms, seize assets, and identify witnesses. Around the same time, the FTC and the U.S. Attorney's Office in the Eastern District of Tennessee formed the Chattanooga Telemarketing Task Force, bringing criminal law enforcement actions against more than 30 local telemarketers.