WASHINGTON – The National Association of Consumer Agency Administrators and the Consumer Federation of America will release on Feb. 10 the results of their 13th annual Consumer Complaint Survey Report with details of the 10 leading consumer complaints in the U.S. In addition, the NACCA and CFA will use the occasion to describe the worse scams, Internet and e-commerce complaints reported by consumer protection agencies throughout the U.S. Typically the report is released annually, but this year's report includes data collected for 2003 and 2004 from consumer agencies. Previous year's Consumer Complaint Survey Reports turned up some interesting findings. The 12th annual survey findings showed that automobile sales was the top consumer complaint category at state and local consumer protection agencies in the U.S. during 2002. Home improvement ranked second (it ranked #1 the previous year), and automotive repairs was in the number three slot (it ranked fourth in the 2002 survey). Home improvement complaints, however, were listed as the fastest growing category in 2002 by 20% of the agencies surveyed. Rounding out the 2003 survey rankings was credit and advertising/telemarketing in fourth and fifth place, respectively. As for the worst scams of 2002, several cases reported were multi-jurisdictional actions by state attorneys general and federal agencies. Among the areas cited were advertising/marketing, cash register overcharges, cell phone billing, charity fraud, and credit (44 states and the District of Columbia settled a predatory lending lawsuit against Household International). Among the most serious credit-related cases of 2002 were those involving advance fee credit cards, credit repair, co-signor abuses, mortgage lending, payday lending, and predatory mortgage lending. Speakers at the Feb. 10th event will include Stephen Hannan, president, NACAA and administrator, Howard County, Md. Office of Consumer Affairs; and Jean Ann Fox, director of consumer protection, Consumer Federation of America. – [email protected]