The promise of being able to fuel cars for free — and power homes for free, too — proved a powerful lure for consumers who ended up getting sucked into a magazine subscription program and never did get the secret of “free gas for life.”
FTC
Feds: Fake Debt Collectors Shook Down 600,000 People and Got More Than $5 Million
Callers from India — often posing as U.S. police officers — called at least 600,000 people across the U.S. about fake debts and took more than $5 million in real money, the Federal Trade Commission announced Wednesday.
2.6 Billion Robo-Calls Later, Why Won’t Rachel from Cardholder Services Just Go Away?
Rachel from Cardholder Services, please stop calling. We all know you’re a scam.
How Facebook Search Could Be a Gift to Google
Facebook’s reported move into search may one day prove a mortal threat to Google’s advertising business. But in the short run, the social network’s new project comes at an opportune time for the search giant.
For Google, …
Hackers Now Aiming For Your Credit Reports
Feds Bust the Mother of All Robocalling Rings
If you were pestered by telemarketers any time between January 2008 and August 2009, there’s a good chance that at least some of the calls came from an operation that was just squashed by the Federal Trade Commission. The agency put out of business a huge operation that bombarded consumers with 2.6 billion robocalls over that time …
FTC Thinks Your Privacy’s Under Attack, Too
This week, the Federal Trade Commission weighed in on the topic of consumer privacy with a new report that essentially says individuals need more protection than the rules and guidelines in place today provide. “The traditional distinction between personally identifiable information and ‘anonymous’ data has blurred,” the agency says in …
Feds Shutter Those Fake News Sites Plugging Bogus Weight Loss Products
The Federal Trade Commission has settled charges it brought against two marketing companies that were allegedly hawking shady weight loss products through a string of web sites that were pretending to be legitimate news …
Do You Know Your Rights If Your Identity Is Stolen?
According to a new report and consumer survey from the Federal Trade Commission, many Americans don’t know what they’re entitled to if someone steals their identity. FTC data shows that, for more than a decade, the top category …
U.S. Senator Calls for Apple, Google Mobile Privacy Probe
The drumbeat over digital privacy is getting louder. Sen. Charles Schumer, a New York Democrat, stepped into the fray over the weekend, calling for the Federal Trade Commission to investigate Apple and Google over reports that …
$2.5 Million FTC Settlement Targets Collection of Expired Debt
One of the biggest debt collection companies in the country recently agreed to pay a $2.5 million civil penalty in a settlement with the FTC — part of an escalating effort by the agency to keep tabs on and, when necessary, rein …
ICANN’s New Top-Level Web Domains Could Spell Dot-Trouble For Businesses
Do you have $185,000 lying around? If so you can apply to purchase one of the web’s new addresses via the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), which runs the web’s domain-name system. The new generic …
