Agencies Take Group Approach to Consumer Fraud Complaints

When Orange County residents have consumer problems, navigating the patchwork of local agencies that handle complaints can be so confusing and frustrating that they just give up.

But help may be on the way.

After a brainstorming session in July, about two dozen agencies decided to join to form the Fraud Education Task Force.

Among the members: the Anaheim, Orange and Garden Grove police departments, the Consumer Credit Counseling Service of Orange County, the California Public Utilities Commission, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, the Better Business Bureau and Consumer Action of Los Angeles.

The Consumer Credit Counseling Service will create a central clearinghouse for fraud information, serving as a universal first stop for consumers and coordinating county consumer education efforts.

“We’ll screen [complaints] and put them on the proper path,” said John Breon, the Consumer Credit Counseling Service director of education.

The task force also will allow agencies to keep one another up to date on cases.

“They realized there’s been a gaping hole,” said Donna Silvestri, who handles community affairs at the utilities commission and is president of the California Consumer Affairs Assn. “Agencies often don’t know if someone else is working on the same problem.”

The task force’s first meeting is expected to be in late September, Breon said.