[Federal Register Volume 65, Number 186 (Monday, September 25, 2000)]
[Notices]
[Pages 57608-57609]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 00-24534]


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FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION


Agency Information Collection Activities; Submission for OMB 
Review; Comment Request

AGENCY: Federal Trade Commission.

ACTION: Notice.

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SUMMARY: The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has submitted to the Office 
of Management and Budget (OMB) for review proposed additions to an OMB 
clearance for FTC administrative activities. The FTC seeks public 
comments regarding the additions and this notice, which is the second 
of two notices required by the PRA for information collection requests 
of this nature. The proposed additions consist of telephone complaint 
hotlines through which staff collects information from callers, three 
consumer complaint forms, and a survey to be used to evaluate the 
effectiveness of the FTC's complaint handling system.

DATES: Comments must be submitted on or before October 25, 2000.

ADDRESSES: Send written comments to the Office of Information and 
Regulatory Affairs, Office of Management and Budget, New Executive 
Office Building, Room 10202, Washington, DC 20503, ATTN.: Desk Officer 
for the Federal Trade Commission, and 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 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 FTC's collections of information 
associated with its telephone complaint hotlines, customer complaint 
forms (providing alternative access to the CRC), and a customer 
satisfaction 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'' includes agency requests for 
answers to identical questions from ten or more persons (extending 
beyond mere identification of the respondent). See 44 U.S.C. 
3502(3); 5 CFR 1320.3(c), 5 CFR 1320.3(h)(1).
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    On July 19, 2000, the FTC published a Federal Register notice with 
a 60-day comment period soliciting comments from the public concerning 
the proposed collections of information (65 FR 44788). No comments were 
received.

Description of the Collection of Information and Proposed Use

    The forms and survey are designed 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 register a complaint using the applicable 
complaint form. There are three different consumer complaint forms: (1) 
The general www.ftc.gov complaint form (for other than identity theft 
complaints); (2) the www.consumer.gov ``Know Fraud'' complaint form 
(essentially another way to access complaint form #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 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, a small part of these 
incoming calls is devoted to the agency's providing information to 
consumers, not collecting information. The burden estimate 
conservatively assumes that all of the estimated time is devoted to 
collecting information from consumers.
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    \2\ Because the fraud-related form is closely patterned after 
the general complaint form, burden estimates per respondent for each 
are the same.
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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.
    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. However, a substantial portion of identity theft-related 
calls (approximately 4 minutes per call) typically consists of 
counseling consumers on other steps they should

[[Page 57609]]

consider taking to obtain relief. Because this activity is different in 
nature and degree than the incidental provision of information in other 
types of fraud complaints, staff excludes it with regard to identity 
theft-related calls.

Customer Satisfaction Survey

    The customer satisfaction survey would collect information 
concerning the overall effectiveness and timeless of the CRC. The CRC 
will survey roughly 2 percent of complainants. Subsets of consumers who 
have contacted staff 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 repsonses. The second 
half of the survey wold 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 staff's 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
             Activity               Number of     minutes/   Total hours
                                   respondents    activity
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Miscell, and fraud-related             300,000          4.5       23,000
 consumer complaints (phone).....
Miscell, and fraud-related              35,000          5.0        3,000
 consumer complaints (online)....
IDT complaints (phone)...........       90,000            8       12,000
IDT complaints (online)..........       26,000          7.5        3,000
Customer Satisfaction                    9,000          4.0          600
 Questionaire....................
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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 by respondents. 
There are no capital, start-up, operation, maintenance, or other 
similar costs to the respondents.

Debra A. Valentine,
General Counsel.
[FR Doc. 00-24534 Filed 9-22-00; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6750-01-M