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Investor Complaints and QuestionsFY 2007 Annual Complaint Data0.1 Percent Decrease in Investor ContactsDuring fiscal year 2007 (ending September 30, 2007), the SEC's investor assistance staff received 77,174 complaints, questions, and other contacts — a 0.1% decrease compared with fiscal year 2006.
"Other contacts" includes repeat contacts, contacts with insufficient information to process, and contacts about issues not within the agency’s jurisdiction. Nearly 50% of these contacts involved telephone calls, a 3% decrease from last year. Approximately 34% came in electronically through online complaint and question forms or by e-mail, a 1% increase from last year. The remainder included letters, faxes, and personal visits. Complaint TrendsThe volume of complaints concerning spam ranked first among the complaint categories. Complaints concerning advance fee fraud were the second ranked complaint type. Both complaint types decreased significantly from FY 2006. Because unwary investors sometimes reveal personal financial information to fraudsters in connection with advance fee fraud schemes and unwanted e-mails and faxes, the SEC's Office of Investor Education and Advocacy continued its efforts to help investors become more informed about ways to protect their personal information when investing online. For example, OIEA has issued an investor guide entitled Online Brokerage Accounts: What You Can Do to Safeguard Your Money and Your Personal Information. The 10 most common complaints received during 2007:
http://www.sec.gov/news/data.htm
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