The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau last week announced a joint effort with state attorneys general and the Department of Defense to create a database to track financial scams targeted toward the military community. The Repeat Offenders Against Military Database will include information from completed enforcement actions against companies suspected of perpetrating such schemes. The purpose of ROAM is to provide a central database that state and federal investigative agencies across the country can use to better track and investigate financial scams taking place in their own districts that target our military. When the database goes live, which is expected to occur in early February 2012, law enforcement officials will be able to contribute information as well as search the database.
As a part of the announcement, the CFPB circulated a letter from Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt and Kentucky Attorney General Jack Conway, co-chairmen of the Consumer Protection Committee of the National Association of Attorneys General. The letter strongly encourages state attorneys general to contribute enforcement information to the ROAM database by providing the CFPB with copies of complaints and final judgments or case names and docket numbers. The CFPB announced that it will "build the database incrementally, beginning with the collection of publicly available data, including final judgments, formal judicial and administrative filings, and other formal actions alleging particular kinds of relevant conduct" suggesting that the database may include non-publicly available information at some point in the future.
