2011 Changes from the 2005 Consumer Fraud Survey Questionnaire

Changes from the 2005 Survey Instrument

1. QL1 – QC5 replace QA and QB of the 2005 questionnaire to implement both a sampling practice that includes both cell and landline phone numbers and a strategy to interview the person over 18 with the most recent birthday, rather than accepting anyone in the household who is over 18.

2. Q4.1 and Q4.2 of the 2005 questionnaire have been eliminated

3. Q7 – Q8d of the 2005 questionnaire have been eliminated

4. Q11.1 – Q11.6b were added to learn about problems in the mortgage relief area.

5. There are minor rewordings in Q13.1, Q14.1, Q15.1, and Q16.1. In these questions the phrase Apromised or guaranteed@ was replaced with just the word Apromised.@

6. Q16a.1.a – Q16a.8 replace Q16a.1 – Q17d of the 2005 questionnaire to improve the questions about debt relief services.

7. Q18.1 has been reworded to more clearly indicate that this question is designed to cover someone who agreed to accept a free trial offer and was then billed for the service.

8. Q19.1, Q21.1, and Q22.1 were reworded to ask ADid you receive an unauthorized bill for ...@ rather than ADid you have this experience while purchasing....@

9. Q19a has been reworded to clarify how those who may have been billed after accepting a free trial offer should respond.

10. Q20.1 – Q20.2 of the 2005 questionnaire have been eliminated.

11. Q28 – Q28c are a version of the questions Q64p – Q65 which ask about payments that were made. They have been tailored to work better with the types of problems covered by this group of questions.

12. Q39 – Q42e replace Q39 – Q44 of the 2005 questionnaire to improve the questions about promised a prize or being told that you have won a lottery. Questions have also been added to cover promises that one will receive a grant and about the receipt of bogus checks.

13. Q49 – Q49g of the 2005 questionnaire have been eliminated.

14. The response categories in Q62 have been altered to capture instances in which a person learned about the problematic product or service via an email directly in the responses to Q62. In the 2005 questionnaire, it was expected that that people who received an email would say that they learned about it from an Internet website and would then identify that it involved an email in Q62a. A category has also been added to capture situations where people learned about the product or service from a social media site, such as Facebook, Twitter, etc.

15. Q62a has been altered to delete emails as a response category, since emails are now to be captured directly in Q62, and to add a category for online classified ad sites, such as Craig=s List.

16. Q64p – Q65 replace Q64b – Q65 of the 2005 questionnaire. Both sets of questions seek information about billing and paying for a product or service. The new questions hopefully ask the questions in a more logical form.

17. Q66 of the 2005 questionnaire has been deleted.

18. Q67 has been reworded slightly.

19. Q72a – Q73 replace Q72 – Q73b of the 2005 questionnaire. The new questions seek to learn a bit more about personal characteristics that may be associated with falling victim to fraudulent offers.

20. Q75a and Q75b were added to learn about household size.

21. Q87a – Q87f have been added to learn about participants= numerical ability and permit us to learn whether people with less numerical ability are more likely to be victims of fraud.