The Federal Trade Commission is offering consumers a new way to protect themselves against unwanted calls.
The agency recently launched a new interactive database that allows anyone to track information about robocalls and other scams. This data was previously only available in a report that came out once per year.
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Users can search in a specific state to see which types of calls are targeting that area and view complaints by topic. Debt cancellation calls make up a majority of the complaints nationwide. In North Carolina, debt reduction and medical/prescription calls are at the top of the complaint list.
Data shows about 30% of the calls are live, the rest are robocalls. North Carolina ranks 30th in the country for number of complaints. So far this year there have been more than 40,000 fraud and identity theft reports in North Carolina. The FTC says victims lost an average of $300.