Orange County promotes National Consumer Protection Week from March 6 to 12

SANTA ANA, Calif. – The County of Orange has proclaimed the week of March 6 through March 12 as National Consumer Protection Week to provide information of interest to County consumers.

Chairman Doug Chaffee presented the proclamation at Tuesday’s Board meeting to Treasurer Shari L. Freidenrich, who is leading the education efforts for National Consumer Protection Week. This is a yearly event promoted by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) with proclamations issued by the President of the United States.

“We live in an electronic age where every type of financial transaction is available and often conducted through the Internet,” Chairman Chaffee said. “It’s my hope that the public will educate themselves in order to avoid become a victim of deceptive and fraudulent practices.”

The County of Orange is dedicated to protecting consumers and providing pertinent information, Treasurer Freidenrich said.

“Identity theft and phishing is a massive problem in society today,” Treasurer Freidenrich said. “If consumers learn about the best practices to keep their financial data secure, they have a less likelihood of becoming a statistic. Every year Americans lose billions of dollars in losses and hardship.”

The FTC received $5.7 million victim reports describing more losing more than $5.8 billion to fraud – a 24% jump in losses in one year. Imposter scams, when someone pretended to be a trusted period or business, led to losses of $2.3 billion.

To help combat cybercrime, during Consumer Protection Week the County of Orange will be distributing free pamphlets and flyers with website links and consumer protection information. The materials, distributed at the County Service Center, focus on identity theft, scams, small business and internet safety for children. The FTC and Consumer Financial Protection Bureau have free materials available on various topics such as imposter scams, dealing with debt collection or recovering from identify theft.

The Service Center is located at 601 Ross St., Santa Ana. A parking map is available at octreasurer.com/octaxparking.