Fraud Forum

The Federal Trade Commission will host a free two-day Fraud Forum on February 25 and 26, 2009, in Washington, DC. The Forum will examine how the FTC can more effectively protect consumers from fraudulent schemes. The first day of the Forum will be open to the public and will provide an opportunity for law enforcement, consumer advocates, business representatives and academics to examine, among other things:

• the extent of fraud in the economy and what survey research indicates about fraud victimization rates;
• the drivers – economic, sociological, and psychological – that create and sustain fraudulent actors; how new fraudulent actors learn the tools of the trade, and how they target victims; 
• whether some segments of the population are at greater risk of being targeted by fraudulent actors; whether victim surveys adequately identify the magnitude and types of fraud launched against all segments of the population; what techniques law enforcement has employed to reach these segments of the population; and
• which best practices in private industries, such as banking, telecommunications, and online commerce, are best suited to identify fraud and prevent their services from being used by fraudulent actors; which systems adequately track potentially fraudulent activity and whether opportunities exist to use new or improved self-regulatory efforts to combat fraud.

The second day of the Forum will be open only to domestic and international law enforcement officials, and will focus on improving interagency coordination in the battle against consumer fraud.

The FTC staff invites interested parties to participate by submitting comments or original research by the dates specified below.