FTC

BULLETIN: In announcing deeply troubling allegations today, the FTC said that seven rent-to-own companies and a software firm spied on customers who leased computers. The customers were spied on in their own homes and at WiFi spots, the FTC alleged. Although the companies agreed to settle the FTC’s charges, the allegations alone introduce the specter […]

BULLETIN: The CFTC has gone to federal court in the Southern District of New York, alleging that Marc Perlman of Rancho Cucamonga, Calif., and his firm, iGlobal Strategic Management LLC, were running a commodity-pool and Forex Ponzi scheme targeted at deaf Christians. Perlman and the company have been charged with fraud. The CFTC said the […]

EDITOR’S NOTE: Payza seems to have taken an important step Friday in the battle against online fraud. The payment-processing company perhaps deserves an accolade for that. But it’s too soon to heap praise on Payza. We are particularly concerned about the phrasing of a specific line in Payza’s altered User Agreement. More on that below […]

BULLETIN: In an unprecedented move, the SEC today announced that it had suspended trading in 379 penny stocks, saying the companies were delinquent in filings and ripe for hijacking and scams involving reverse mergers and pump-and-dump schemes. “The trading suspension marks the most companies ever suspended in a single day by the agency as it […]

Owing to time constraints, the PP Blog hasn’t written much about Zeek Rewards, an MLM “program” married to a penny-auction site known as “Zeekler.” For simplicity, we’ll refer to both arms as “Zeek.” The structure of Zeek and precisely what it does are just plain baffling. Even so, it appears to have a legion of […]

BULLETIN: The Federal Trade Commission has gone to federal court in the Eastern District of California, alleging that several individuals and companies were running separate, web-based scams in which borrowers were told they could avoid vehicle repossessions by paying upfront fees to the accused scammers and not making payments on their car loans. The scams […]

BULLETIN: A federal judge has frozen the assets of three Florida companies and their operator, after the Federal Trade Commission alleged a “precious metals” telemarketing scam aimed at senior citizens was under way and had collected nearly $9 million. Named defendants in the case were Anthony J. Columbo, Premier Precious Metals Inc., Rushmore Consulting Group Inc. […]

ANNOUNCEMENT/ALERT: UPDATED 6:10 P.M. EDT (U.S.A.) The PP Blog is publishing this post in an abundance of caution. Based on a security alert the Blog received this afternoon, it may be best to steer clear of the website circled in the graphic above and described below. On Jan. 4, 2012, the Blog reported that the […]

BULLETIN: A federal judge in the Central District of California has approved asset freezes and  appointed a receiver in a case in which the FTC alleged several companies and a scammer-in-chief were running two mortgage-relief fraud schemes. The scam, the FTC said, traded on an image of President Obama and used at least three .org […]

BULLETIN: A federal judge in California has ordered the operators and top promoters of the BurnLounge MLM scam to pay nearly $17 million. The FTC brought the BurnLounge pyramid-scheme case in 2007, saying the program “primarily provided payments to participants for recruiting of new participants, not on the retail sale of products or services.” In […]

URGENT >> BULLETIN >> MOVING: In a case that featured elements similar to the allegations against U.S.-based Internet Marketer Jeremy Johnson, the FTC has gained a $359 million consent judgment against alleged Canadian scammer Jesse Willms and other defendants. The agency sued Willms in May 2011, about six months after it sued Johnson. Wiilms now […]