Identity theft tops consumer complaints in 2013

Identity theft and debt collection topped the list for biggest consumer complaints of 2013, according to a report.

Americans last year complained the most about identity theft, with nearly 300,000 of consumers saying their personal data were used without their knowledge, according to an annual tally from the Federal Trade Commission.

About 14% of the more than 2 million complaints reported the the agency were related to identity theft. Roughly 30% of those were reported by consumers who said their personal information was used illegally in tax- or wage-related documents, the agency said.

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American consumers lost over $1.6 billion to fraud overall last year, the FTC said.

About 10% of consumers said they were bedeviled by debt collectors, and another 7% reported that they were bothered by banks and lenders.

A smaller slice of Americans said they experienced fraud for car-related issues (4%), sweepstakes and lotteries (4%) and impostor scams (6%).

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