03-4397. Agency Information Collection Activities; Submission for OMB Review; Comment Request

AGENCY:

Federal Trade Commission (FTC).

ACTION:

Notice.

SUMMARY:

The FTC is seeking Office of Management and Budget (OMB) clearance under the Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA) for a consumer survey to gather information on the incidence of consumer fraud in the population and enable it to better serve people who experience it. The FTC seeks public comment regarding this notice, which is the second of two notices required by the PRA for information collection requests of this nature.

DATES:

Comments on the proposed information requests must be submitted on or before March 27, 2003.

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 (comments in electronic form should be sent to [e-mail]), and to Secretary, Federal Trade Commission, Room H-159, 600 Pennsylvania Ave., NW., Washington, DC 20580 (comments in electronic form should be sent to [e-mail], as prescribed below). 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 “Consumer Fraud Survey—FTC File No. P014412.”

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Requests for additional information, such as requests for the Supporting Statement, related attachments, or copies of the proposed collection of information, should be addressed to Nat Wood, Assistant Director, Office of Consumer and Business Education, Bureau of Consumer Protection, Federal Trade Commission, 600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW., Washington, DC 20580. Telephone: [phone], e-mail: [e-mail].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Under the PRA (44 U.S.C. 3501-3520), Federal agencies must obtain approval from OMB for each collection of information they conduct or sponsor. On December 4, 2002, the FTC published a Federal Register notice with a 60-day comment period seeking comments from the public concerning the collection of information from consumers. See 67 FR 72186. No comments were received. Pursuant to the OMB regulations that implement the PRA (5 CFR part 1320), the FTC is providing this second opportunity for public comment while seeking OMB approval to conduct the collection of information presented by the proposed survey.

If a comment contains nonpublic information, it must be filed in paper form, and the first page of the document must be clearly labeled “confidential.” Comments that do not contain any nonpublic information may instead be filed in electronic form (in ASCII format, WordPerfect, or Microsoft Word) as part of or as an attachment to e-mail messages directed to the following e-mail box: [e-mail]. Such comments will be considered by the Commission and will be available for inspection and copying at its principal office in accordance with section 4.9(b)(6)(ii) of the Commission's Rules of Practice, 16 CFR section 4.9(b)(6)(ii).

Description of the Collection of Information and Proposed Use

The FTC proposes to survey approximately 3,000 consumers in order to gather specific information on the incidence of consumer fraud in the general population. This information will be collected on a voluntary basis, and the identities of the consumers will remain confidential. The FTC has contracted with a consumer research firm to identify consumers and conduct the survey. The results will: (1) Assist the FTC in determining whether the type and frequency of consumer fraud complaints collected in its Consumer Sentinel database representatively reflect the incidence of consumer fraud in the general population; and (2) inform the FTC about how best to combat consumer fraud.

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 15 minutes per person and 25 hours as a whole (100 respondents × 15 minutes each). Answering the consumer survey will require approximately 15 minutes pre respondent and 750 hours as a whole (3,000 respondents × 15 minutes each). Thus, cumulative total hours attributable to the consumer research will approximate 775 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.

By direction of the Commission.

Donald S. Clark,

Secretary.