FTC Releases Spanish-Language Public Service Announcements

As part of its ongoing Spanish-language outreach program, the Federal Trade Commission has begun disseminating two audio public service announcements to more than 700 radio stations in the United States and Puerto Rico, including stations in the top 100 Hispanic markets. The outreach aims to raise awareness of the FTC and its consumer protection role among Spanish speakers.

The public service announcements were distributed beginning May 22, 2003. One announcement encourages consumers to contact the FTC to file a complaint or to get consumer information. The other announcement educates consumers about identity theft and alerts them to the FTC's ID Theft Hotline, through which they can file identity theft-related complaints and obtain valuable tips on protecting their personal information.

Additionally, to help Spanish-speaking consumers avoid fraud, scams, and ripoffs, the FTC has translated more than 50 of its consumer education publications into Spanish. The publications, as well as an online consumer complaint form, are available on a newly designed Web page, www.ftc.gov/spanish. The FTC uses its Spanish-language publications - along with translated press releases and the Spanish-language sections of other FTC Web pages - to facilitate outreach to organizations, associations, and Spanish-language media serving the Hispanic community. The publications address a wide variety of topics, including:

• Abusive Lending
• Automobiles
• Credit
• Diet, Health, and Fitness
• E-Commerce and the Internet
• Franchise and Business Opportunities
• Home and Home Repair Issues
• Identity Theft
• Investments
• Products and Services
• Scholarship and Employment Services
• Issues Affecting Senior Citizens
• Telemarketing
• Telephone Services

The FTC has been building its library of Spanish-language publications since January 2002. To date, the Commission has distributed more than 200,000 publications to Spanish speakers and has logged nearly 300,000 hits to the Spanish information on the FTC's Web site. Among the most widely distributed Spanish-language publications are: ID Theft: When Bad Things Happen to Your Good Name and Safe at Any Speed: How to Stay Safe Online If You Use High Speed Internet Access.

Copies of Spanish-language publications are available from the FTC's Web site at http://www.ftc.gov/spanish. To order Spanish publications, visit www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/bulkordr_span.htm. The FTC works for the consumer to prevent fraudulent, deceptive, and unfair business practices in the marketplace and to provide information to help consumers spot, stop, and avoid them. To file a complaint, or to get free information on any of 150 consumer topics, call toll-free, 1-877-FTC-HELP (1 877-382-4357), or use the complaint form at http://www.ftc.gov. The FTC enters Internet, telemarketing, identity theft, and other fraud-related complaints into Consumer Sentinel, a secure, online database available to hundreds of civil and criminal law enforcement agencies in the U.S. and abroad.