[Federal Register Volume 81, Number 62 (Thursday, March 31, 2016)]
[Notices]
[Pages 18628-18629]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2016-07280]



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FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION


Agency Information Collection Activities; Proposed Collection; 
Comment Request

AGENCY: Federal Trade Commission (``FTC'' or ``Commission'').

ACTION: Notice.

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SUMMARY: The FTC intends to conduct a survey of consumers to advance 
its understanding of the prevalence of consumer fraud and to allow the 
FTC to better serve people who experience fraud. The survey will be a 
follow-up to three previous surveys, the most recent of which was 
conducted between November 2011 and February 2012. Before gathering 
this information, the FTC is seeking public comments on its proposed 
consumer research. Comments will be considered before the FTC submits a 
request for the Office of Management and Budget (``OMB'') review under 
the Paperwork Reduction Act (``PRA'').

DATES: Comments on the proposed information requests must be received 
on or before June 13, 2016.

ADDRESSES: Interested parties may file a comment online or on paper, by 
following the instructions in the Request for Comment part of the 
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION section below. Write: ``Consumer Fraud Survey 
2016: Paperwork Comment, FTC File No. P105502'' on your comment and 
file the comment online at https://ftcpublic.commentworks.com/ftc/fraudsurvey2016 by following the instructions on the web-based form. If 
you prefer to file your comment on paper, mail your comment to the 
following address: Federal Trade Commission, Office of the Secretary, 
600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW., Suite CC-5610 (Annex J), Washington, DC 
20580, or deliver your comment to the following address: Federal Trade 
Commission, Office of the Secretary, Constitution Center, 400 7th 
Street SW., 5th Floor Suite 5610 (Annex J), Washington, DC 20024.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Requests for additional information 
should be addressed to Keith B. Anderson, Economist, Bureau of 
Economics, Federal Trade Commission, 600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW., H-
238, Washington, DC 20580, (202) 326-3428.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
    Background: As part of its consumer protection mission, the FTC has 
brought hundreds of cases targeting perpetrators of consumer fraud and 
has committed significant resources to educational initiatives designed 
to protect consumers against such frauds. In order to ensure that its 
efforts in fighting fraud are as effective as possible, the Commission 
would like to make certain that it has current data on the prevalence 
of various types of consumer fraud.
    The Commission has conducted three previous surveys designed to 
estimate the prevalence of consumer fraud among U.S. adults. The most 
recent survey was conducted between November 2011 and February 2012. A 
report describing the findings of that survey--Consumer Fraud in the 
United States, 2011: The Third FTC Survey--was released in April 2013 
and can be found at https://www.ftc.gov/sites/default/files/documents/reports/consumer-fraud-united-states-2011-third-ftc-survey/130419fraudsurvey_0.pdf.\1\
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    \1\ Each survey was conducted under OMB Control Number 3084-
0125. The first consumer fraud survey was conducted in May and June 
of 2003. The results of that survey are reported in ``Consumer Fraud 
in the United States: An FTC Survey'' (https://www.ftc.gov/sites/default/files/documents/reports/consumer-fraud-united-states-ftc-survey/040805confraudrpt.pdf). The 2005 survey was conducted in 
November and December of 2005 and the findings of that survey are 
reported in ``Consumer Fraud in the United States: The Second FTC 
Survey,'' (https://www.ftc.gov/sites/default/files/documents/reports/consumer-fraud-united-states-second-federal-trade-commission-survey-staff-report-federal-trade/fraud.pdf).
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    The 2011 survey asked about consumers' experiences with 15 specific 
and two more general types of fraud during the previous year. Among 
frauds covered by the survey were weight-loss products that did not 
work as the seller claimed they would; failure to deliver promised 
prize or lottery winnings after the consumer made a required purchase, 
paid money, or attended a required sales presentation; and buyers' club 
memberships that consumers had not agreed to purchase. Based on the 
survey results, during 2011, 25.6 million U.S. adults--10.8 percent of 
the U.S. adult population--were victims of one or more of the frauds 
covered by the survey.
    Among the 15 specific frauds included in the survey, the most 
frequently reported was the purchase of a weight-loss product that the 
seller falsely represented would allow the user to lose a substantial 
amount of weight easily or lose the weight without diet or exercise. 
The survey results suggested that during 2011 5.1 million consumers--
2.1 percent of the U.S. adult population--had tried such a product and 
found that they only lost a little of the weight they had expected to 
lose or failed to lose any weight at all.
    Because the proposed survey will require obtaining answers from 
more than nine individuals, the Commission intends to seek OMB 
clearance under the PRA before conducting the survey. Under the PRA, 44 
U.S.C. 3501-3521, federal agencies must obtain approval from OMB for 
each ``collection of information'' they conduct or sponsor if posed to 
ten or more entities within any twelve-month period. 44 U.S.C. 3502(3); 
5 CFR 1320.3(c). ``Collection of information'' means agency requests or 
requirements that members of the public submit reports, keep records, 
or provide information to a third party. 44 U.S.C. 3502(3); 5 CFR 
1320.3(c). As required by section 3506(c)(2)(A) of the PRA, the FTC is 
providing this opportunity for public comment before requesting that 
OMB authorize the proposed collection of information.
    The FTC invites comments on: (1) Whether the study is necessary, 
including whether the information will be practically useful; (2) the 
accuracy of our burden estimates, including whether the methodology and 
assumptions used are valid; (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.
    Description of the Collection of Information and Proposed Use: The 
FTC proposes to conduct a telephone survey of up to 4,100 randomly-
selected consumers nationwide age 18 and over--100 in a pretest and 
4,000 in the main survey--in order to gather specific information on 
the incidence of consumer fraud in the general population. The proposed 
sample size is similar to that used in the previous surveys. Many of 
the questions will be similar to the 2005 and 2011 surveys.\2\ As 
before, one of the focuses of the survey will be to determine the 
prevalence of fraud among certain groups of consumers. These may 
include racial minorities, the elderly, members of the military, and 
those with low incomes. In order to obtain a more reliable picture of 
the experiences of such groups, the survey may oversample members of 
some of these groups. All information will be collected on a voluntary 
basis, and information on the identities of participants will not be 
collected. Subject to OMB approval for the survey, the FTC plans to 
contract with a consumer research firm to identify consumers and 
conduct the survey. The results will assist the FTC in determining the 
incidence of consumer fraud in the general population and whether the 
type or

[[Page 18629]]

frequency of consumer frauds is changing. This information will inform 
the FTC about how best to combat consumer fraud. The FTC may choose to 
conduct another follow-up survey in approximately five years.
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    \2\ The survey instrument for the 2011 Consumer Fraud Survey is 
included in the 2013 report as Appendix D.
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    Estimated Hours Burden: The FTC will pretest the survey on 
approximately 100 respondents to ensure that all questions are easily 
understood. This pretest will take approximately 17 minutes per person 
and 28 hours as a whole (100 respondents x 17 minutes each). Answering 
the consumer survey will require approximately 15 minutes per 
respondent and 1,000 hours as a whole (4,000 respondents x 15 minutes 
each). Thus, cumulative total burden hours for the first year of the 
clearance will approximate 1,028 hours.
    Estimated Cost Burden: The cost per respondent should be 
negligible. Participation is voluntary and will not require start-up, 
capital, or labor expenditures by respondents.
    Request for Comment: You can file a comment online or on paper. For 
the Commission to consider your comment, we must receive it on or 
before June 13, 2016. Write ``Consumer Fraud Survey 2016: Paperwork 
Comment, FTC File No. P105502'' on your comment. Your comment--
including your name and your state--will be placed on the public record 
of this proceeding, including, to the extent practicable, on the public 
Commission Web site, at http://www.ftc.gov/os/publiccomments.shtm. As a 
matter of discretion, the Commission tries to remove individuals' home 
contact information from comments before placing them on the Commission 
Web site.
    Because your comment will be made public, you are solely 
responsible for making sure that your comment doesn't include any 
sensitive personal information, such as anyone's Social Security 
number, date of birth, driver's license number or other state 
identification number or foreign country equivalent, passport number, 
financial account number, or credit or debit card number. You are also 
solely responsible for making sure that your comment does not include 
any sensitive health information, such as medical records or other 
individually identifiable health information. In addition, do not 
include any ``[t]rade secret or any commercial or financial information 
which is . . . privileged or confidential,'' as discussed in Section 
6(f) of the FTC Act, 15 U.S.C. 46(f), and FTC Rule 4.10(a)(2), 16 CFR 
4.10(a)(2). In particular, do not include competitively sensitive 
information, such as costs, sales statistics, inventories, formulas, 
patterns, devices, manufacturing processes, or customer names. If you 
want the Commission to give your comment confidential treatment, you 
must file it in paper form, with a request for confidential treatment, 
and you must follow the procedure explained in FTC Rule 4.9(c), 16 CFR 
4.9(c). Your comment will be kept confidential only if the FTC General 
Counsel grants your request in accordance with the law and the public 
interest.
    Postal mail addressed to the Commission is subject to delay due to 
heightened security screening. As a result, we encourage you to submit 
your comments online, or to send them to the Commission by courier or 
overnight service. To make sure that the Commission considers your 
online comment, you must file it at https://ftcpublic.commentworks.com/ftc/fraudsurvey2016, by following the instructions on the web-based 
form. When this Notice appears at http://www.regulations.gov/#!home, 
you also may file a comment through that Web site.
    If you file your comment on paper, write ``Consumer Fraud Survey 
2016: Paperwork Comment, FTC File No. P105502'' on your comment and on 
the envelope, and mail it to the following address: Federal Trade 
Commission, Office of the Secretary, 600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW., Suite 
CC-5610 (Annex J), Washington, DC 20580, or deliver your comment to the 
following address: Federal Trade Commission, Office of the Secretary, 
Constitution Center, 400 7th Street SW., 5th Floor, Suite 5610 (Annex 
J), Washington, DC 20024. If possible, submit your paper comment to the 
Commission by courier or overnight service.
    The FTC Act and other laws that the Commission administers permit 
the collection of public comments to consider and use in this 
proceeding as appropriate. The Commission will consider all timely and 
responsive public comments that it receives on or before June 13, 2016. 
For information on the Commission's privacy policy, including routine 
uses permitted by the Privacy Act, see http://www.ftc.gov/ftc/privacy.htm.

    By direction of the Commission.
Donald S. Clark,
Secretary.
[FR Doc. 2016-07280 Filed 3-30-16; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6750-01-P