Yes, we live in the greatest nation with the most abundance. Of course, that also makes us a target for those lazy folks who would like to take what we have without working for it. There are folks abroad that go out of their way in e-mail phishing campaigns to steal our money, but there are also folks here at home, living amongst us who are engaged in identity theft, credit card number stealing, and separating us from our hard earned money. Okay so, I'd like to talk to you a little bit about this if I might.
Is there anything being done? Well, we do seem to be educating the public, and they are no longer are naïve about many of the scams out there online. The media has also done a significant job in warning people of what the latest scams are, as well as what to do about it, or who to contact with a complaint. Also, our computer software companies are better at protecting us as well.
What about the FTC you ask? Sure, they do a lot of PR, and they're always telling us all the great things they are supposedly doing to prevent identity theft. There was an interesting article recently on MSNBC titled; "Consumers' top 10 complaints - Identity theft once again is No. 1 on the FTC's list. Banks and lenders broke into the top 10 at No. 4," posted on March 14, 2012, by Christopher Magg which stated;
"Identity theft continues to be a major concern for American consumers, accounting for more complaints in 2011 than any other type of fraud or scam, according to a report released Tuesday by the Federal Trade Commission. It was the 12th straight year that identity theft topped the list of consumer complaints. The number of ID theft-related complaints grew by 11% to nearly 280,000, the FTC reported."
Okay so, this was a well-written and informative article, perhaps you should read it yourself to see what you can do to prevent identity theft. Still, I do have a problem with the FTC putting out a report that states that lack of funding to their agency will cause more identity theft, and that without the funding the problem will increase. Let me explain to you why.
You see, I've been tracking the FTC for the last decade and watching their PR tactics, advertising, and marketing promoting themselves, as well as watching their dismal performance in protecting the consumer against telemarketers, SPAM, and identity theft. You see, the FTC claims to be working on these problems, but the challenges are growing often at double and triple digits. The FTC has not gotten a handle on this obviously because the problems still exist.
When they went after SPAM, did it stop? No, it still goes on today, and when they worked on telemarketing did they help that situation? Well, a little bit, but my phone still rings several times a day from telemarketers who are supposedly using some type of loophole which allows them to continually call even though there's a law against it now. Indeed, maybe we as taxpayers need to stop paying our federal agencies to put out reports to scare us, to ask for more money of Congress to fix the problem that they have already proved to us to have dismally performed.
Is it right to pick on the FTC and single them out? Sure, they go around doing that to the business community every day, at some point they need to walk their own talk, but they don't, all we get is puffery, and false and misleading public relations pieces, now they want more of our taxpayer's money - no way are you serious? Indeed, I ask that you please consider all this and think on.
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