Consumer Fraud and Identity Theft Reports for 2018

Federal Trade Commission data contains national and state-level statistics on consumer complaints regarding fraud and identity theft for calendar year 2018. The Data Book is compiled from reports made directly to the FTC and from federal, state, local, and international law enforcement partners. It includes per-capita complaint rankings for metropolitan areas.

Use Cases

• Analyze state-level trends in top report categories to identify regional fraud patterns.
• Rank metropolitan areas by per-capita complaint volume to prioritize consumer protection outreach.
• Compare national statistics on fraud and identity theft reports to assess overall consumer complaint landscape.

Strengths

• Data originates from the authoritative Federal Trade Commission (FTC).
• Includes granular geographic breakdowns at both state and metropolitan area levels.
• Covers a specific, defined calendar year (2018) for temporal consistency.

Limitations

• Data is from 2018 and may not reflect current fraud trends.
• Underlying row-level data and column schema are not provided in the description.
• Data is aggregated into summary statistics, limiting detailed individual analysis.

Provenance

Source

Federal Trade Commission (FTC)

Collection Method

Aggregated from consumer reports submitted directly to the FTC and from reports shared by law enforcement agencies and non-governmental organizations.

Time Range

Calendar year 2018

Freshness

Annual production; this edition covers 2018 and was last updated in November 2020.

Geography

United States, with national, state, and metropolitan area coverage