|
Military Sentinel
:
Frequently Asked
Questions
What is Military Sentinel?
Military Sentinel is a
joint initiative of the Department of Defense and the Federal Trade Commission
that aims to improve consumer protection for service members and DOD civilians.
The FTC designed Military Sentinel to centralize the online collection of
consumer complaints from the DOD and military communities. Consumer fraud
and identity theft complaints entered via Military Sentinel are accessible
to more than 550 law enforcement agencies via the Consumer Sentinel Network.
Information from these complaints will help target law enforcement actions
and consumer education initiatives and will result in better protection for
consumers in the DOD and military communities.
Why was Military Sentinel
created?
Consumer issues impact
quality of life, and quality of life affects military readiness. Military
Sentinel is the first centralized collection of consumer complaints from service
members and military civilian employees and their families. Military Sentinel
allows complaints to be recorded by branch of service and installation, giving
DOD law enforcers and policy makers vital information to better protect service
members and DOD civilians in the marketplace.
What special challenges
face members of the military?
Service members and military
civilian employees can face unique challenges when trying to deal with issues
related to consumer protection. They can have nonstandard work schedules,
are away from home for long periods of time, relocate often, and aren't always
able to use the normal consumers' protection channels because they are living
outside the US. Further, service members and military civilian employees may
be targets for certain scams because their personally identifying information
may be available as a matter of a public record.
What happens to complaints?
Complaints filed via Military
Sentinel's secure online form will be forwarded to the FTC for review by
staff. The complaint is entered into the FTC's Consumer Information System,
a central repository for consumer complaints. Identity theft complaints are
entered into the Identity Theft Data Clearinghouse, the federal government's
central database.
The complaints are coded
by the branch of service and installation the complainant selects. Consumer
fraud and identity theft complaints are accessible to DOD and civilian law
enforcers through the
Consumer
Sentinel Network.
DOD policy officials
have access to complaints through a secure Military Sentinel site, but not
to the complainants' personally identifying information.
What is the
Consumer
Sentinel Network?
The
Consumer
Sentinel Network is an investigative cybertool and complaint database
that provides hundreds of civil and criminal law enforcement agencies immediate
and secure access to Internet, telemarketing and other consumer fraud-related
complaints. Online since 1997, Consumer Sentinel now has more than 750,000
fraud and identity theft complaints from consumers all over the world. The
FTC, the FBI's Internet Fraud Complaint Center, the National Consumer's League's
National Fraud Information Center, numerous local Better Business Bureaus,
the Social Security Administration's Office of the Inspector General and Canada's
PhoneBusters contribute consumer complaints to the database.
What is the
Identity
Theft Data Clearinghouse?
The Identity Theft Data
Clearinghouse is the federal government's central repository for identity
theft victim complaints. The FTC maintains the clearinghouse. The clearinghouse
is accessible to U.S. domestic law enforcers through the
Consumer
Sentinel Network.
Why should I use Military
Sentinel?
Military Sentinel allows
service members and military civilian employees and their families to report
consumer protection complaints directly to the FTC and DOD officials via a
secure online form. The FTC uses consumer complaints as a tool to determine
companies or individuals to target for law enforcement actions. Military Sentinel
also is a tool to request information about a particular subject.
Consumer fraud and identity
theft complaints are shared with more than 550 law enforcement agencies, including
DOD law enforcement agencies, through a system called the Consumer Sentinel
Network. Military Sentinel allows you to forward your complaint electronically
24 hours a day to all 50 state attorneys general, the FBI, and the U.S. Postal
Inspection Service.
Identity theft complaints
are reviewed with the help of the U.S. Secret Service and are shared with
local financial crime task forces.
Do I have to give my
name to file a complaint on Military Sentinel?
No. Although Military
Sentinel accepts anonymous complaints, anonymity has some drawbacks. If you
don't provide your name or other information, it may not be possible for us
to refer, respond to, or investigate your complaint or request.
Meantime, the complaint
form does have some required fields, including status (service member/dependent/DOD
civilian employee), installation, pay grade, subject of your complaint, how
the company you are complaining about contacted you, and if the company contacted
you on your installation. This information is collected to help DOD officials
correctly gauge consumer protection issues facing the military.
Who has access to my
complaint information?
Information submitted
using the Military Sentinel complaint form is stored in the FTC's consumer
complaint databases and is accessible to FTC investigators and employees for
law enforcement purposes. Complaint information also may be shared with certain
private entities, such as credit bureaus and any companies you may have complained
about, if we believe that doing so might help resolve the problem.
In addition, the FTC may
release aggregate statistical data, and may disclose other information as
directed by law. For more information, please review the agency's
privacy
policy.
Where can I go to get
more information about military legal assistance resources?
Use the Office of the
Secretary of Defenses SITES ( http://www.dmdc.osd.mil/sites
) to find out about your local installation legal assistance program or use
the links on our Helpful Links section to find the legal assistance office
nearest to you.
As a law enforcement
officer, how can I access the Military Sentinel's consumer fraud data?
Military Sentinel's consumer
fraud and identity theft data are available to law enforcement agents through
the Consumer Sentinel Network. For
more information about Consumer Sentinel, contact us directly at (877) 701-9595,
or visit Consumer Sentinel's public Web site at
www.consumer.gov/sentinel.
What is the URL for Military
Sentinel?
You can find Military
Sentinel at www.consumer.gov/military.
Check your local ready room computers and intranet to see if links have been
provided by your local legal assistance offices.
As a DOD Official, who
do I contact for information about accessing the secure site?
Access to the Military
Sentinel secure site is handled in conjunction with the separate DOD service
representatives. Contact Sentinel staff at
sentinel@ftc.gov to have your request forwarded to the appropriate service
representative.
How can I find out more
about the DOD and FTC's Military Sentinel initiative?
To find out more about
Military Sentinel, visit the Military Sentinel public Web site at
http://www.consumer.gov/military, or contact Sentinel
staff at sentinel@ftc.gov.
|
