[Federal Register Volume 65, Number 139 (Wednesday, July 19, 2000)]
[Notices]
[Pages 44788-44790]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 00-18190]


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FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION


Agency Information Collection Activities; Proposed Collection; 
Comment Request; Revision

AGENCY: Federal Trade Commission.

ACTION:  Notice.

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SUMMARY: The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) seeks public comments on 
proposed additions to an Office of Management and Budget (OMB) 
clearance for FTC administrative activities. This request concerns 
three consumer complaint forms and a survey to be used to evaluate the 
effectiveness of the FTC's complaint handling system. The proposed 
additions will be submitted to OMB for review, as required by the 
Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA), following this opportunity for public 
comment.

DATES: Comments must be submitted on or before September 18, 2000.

ADDRESSES: Send written comments to Secretary, Federal Trade 
Commission, Room H-159, 600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW., Washington, DC 
20580, or by e-mail to [email protected]. The submissions should 
include the submitter's name, address, telephone number and, if 
available, FAX number and e-mail address. All submissions should be 
captioned ``PRA/Consumer

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Complaint system.'' All comments should be identified as responding to 
this notice.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Requests for additional information or 
copies of the proposed survey questions should be addressed to Joseph 
Brooke, Division of Planning and Information, Bureau of Consumer 
Protection, Federal Trade Commission, 600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW., H-
292, Washington, DC 20580, (202) 326-3484. The consumer complaint forms 
may be found at the following websites: https://www.ftc.gov/ftc/complaint.htm (general complaint form); https://www.ftc.gov/ftc/knowfraudcomplaint.htm (fraud complaints); and https://www.ftc.gov/ftc/idtheftform.htm (identity theft).

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Under section 3507(h)(3) of the PRA, 44 
U.S.C. 3501-3520, a Federal agency may not materially change an 
approved collection of information \1\ unless OMB has approved the 
modification. OMB previously granted approval for various collections 
of information grouped under the category ``FTC Administrative 
Activities'' (OMB Control Number 3084-0047) on August 16, 1999. This 
category consists of applications to the FTC, including those 
pertaining to its Rules of Practice, primarily those under Parts 1, 2, 
and 4 of CFR Title 16. On July 12, 2000, OMB granted an expedited 
provisional clearance for the forms and survey and, under 5 CFR 
1320.13(d), waived the requirement to publish a notice of the emergency 
clearance request.
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    \1\ ``Collection of information'' is defined in 44 U.S.C. 
3502(3) and 5 CFR 1320.3(c), and includes, as relevant here, agency 
requests for answers to identical questions from ten or more persons 
that extend beyond mere identification of the respondent.
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    As required by section 3506(c)(2)(A) of the PRA, the FTC is 
providing this opportunity for public comment before submitting its 
certification and the forms and survey to OMB for its non-provisional 
clearance relating to FTC administrative activities. The FTC will ask 
that OMB extend its approval for these proposed additions through 
August 31, 2002, to coincide with the expiration of the existing 
clearance.
    The FTC invites comments on: (1) Whether the proposed collection of 
information is necessary for the proper performance of the functions of 
the agency, including whether the information will have practical 
utility; (2) the accuracy of the agency's estimate of the burden of the 
proposed collection of information, including the validity of the 
methodology and assumptions used; (3) ways to enhance the quality, 
utility, and clarity of the information to be collected; and (4) ways 
to minimize the burden of the collection of information on those who 
are to 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.

Description of the Collection of Information and Proposed Use

    The forms and survey are to improve public access to the Bureau of 
Consumer Protection's (BCP) Consumer Response Center (CRC), and are 
voluntary. Consumers may call a hotline phone number or may log on to 
the FTC's website to electronically register a complaint using the 
applicable complaint form. There are three different consumer complain 
forms: (1) the general www.ftc.gov complain form (for other than 
indentify theft complaints); (2) the www.consumer.gov ``Know Fraud'' 
complain form (essentially another way to access complaint from #1); 
and (3) the ``Identity Theft On-Line Complaint Form.''

General and Fraud Complaint Systems

    Telephone complaints and inquiries to the FTC are answered both by 
FTC staff and an offsite contractor. Telephone counselors ask for the 
same information that consumers would enter on the applicable online 
form. For the general complaint and fraud systems, BCP has set a target 
time of 4.5 minutes per call to gather information, somewhat less time 
than it estimates for consumers to enter their complaints online.\2\ 
This target was determined by the BCP's standard telemarketing best 
practices for consumer calls. Frequently, part of these incoming calls 
is devoted to the agency's providing requested information to 
consumers, not collecting information. The burden estimate, however, 
conservatively assumes that all of the estimated time is devoted to 
collecting information from consumers.

Identity Theft

    To handle complaints about identity theft, the FTC must obtain more 
detailed information than is required of other complainants. BCP 
designed the online identity theft form to be as short as practicable, 
seeking only the minimum information needed for initial evaluation and 
potential follow up. Obtaining further information through the initial 
consumer contact was dropped as unwieldy. With call-ins, however, staff 
and the contractor seek to obtain more detailed and comprehensive 
information up front to minimize the need for follow up calls.
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    \2\ Because the fruad-related form is closely patterned after 
the general complain form, burden estimates per respondent for each 
are the same.
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    Since investigating identity theft requires more information (e.g., 
credit history, credit bureau information, respondent social security 
number, identifying multiple suspects) than general consumer complaints 
and complaints about fraud, identity theft calls and online entries 
take longer. A significant portion of caller time (approximately 4 
minutes per call), however, involves counseling consumers, no 
collecting information. Accordingly, the estimated telephone time shown 
below accounts only for the information collection part of the calls.

Customer Satisfaction Survey

    The customer satisfaction survey would collect information 
concerning the overall effectiveness and timeliness of the CRC. The CRC 
will survey roughly 2 percent of complainants. Subsets of consumers 
contacts throughout the year will be questioned about specific aspects 
of CRC customer service.
    Each consumer surveyed would be asked 8-10 questions chosen from 
the list noted above. Half of the questions would ask consumers to rate 
CRC performance on a scale or call for yes or no responses. The second 
half of the survey would ask more open-ended questions seeking a short 
written or verbal answer. BCP staff estimates that each respondent will 
require four minutes to answer the questions (approximately 20-30 
seconds per question).
    What follows are preliminary estimates of burden for these various 
collections of information, including the questionnaire. The figures 
for the online forms and consumer hotlines are an average of annualized 
volume-to-date for the respective programs and projected volume for the 
next two years (the period of the existing clearance for FTC 
administrative activities), and are rounded to the nearest thousand.
    Annual hours burden:

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                                                                                     Number of
                            Activity                                 Number of        minutes       Total hours
                                                                    respondents      activity
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Miscell. and fraud-related consumer complaints (phone)..........         300,000             4.5          23,000
Miscell. and fraud-related consumer complaints (lonline)........          35,000             5.0           3,000
IDT complaints (phone)..........................................          90,000               8          12,000
IDT complaints (online).........................................          26,000             7.5           3,000
Customer Satisfaction Questionnaire.............................           9,000             4.0             600
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        Total...................................................         460,000  ..............          41,600
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Annual Cost Burden

    The cost per respondent should be negligible. Participation is 
voluntary, and will not require any labor expenditures of respondents. 
There are no capital, start-up, operation, maintenance, or other 
similar costs to the respondents.

Debra A. Valentine,
General Counsel.
[FR Doc. 00-18190 Filed 7-18-00; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6750-01-M