It makes the Agency more accessible to consumers who want to report a fraud, and it makes their valuable complaint data available to law enforcement agencies in the U.S. and Canada. Consumer fraud complaints to the FTC are entered into a database that is available to nearly 200 law enforcement agencies in the U.S. and Canada. They use it to spot fraudulent activity, trends and wrong-doers and stop them. Obviously, the FTC can't intervene in individual disputes, but consumer complaint information is crucial to the enforcement of consumer protection laws. The information that consumers get on a particular issue also lessens the likelihood that they'll be scammed again.
Education is a powerful consumer protection.