Some 150 organizations in 28 countries recently swept the Internet to sniff out phony get-rich-quick schemes online. Suspicious sites are reported to a Web site administered by the Federal Trade Commission in Washington, D.C.
Staffers in U.S. federal agencies and state consumer protection agencies, joined their counterparts in other countries to surf the Net for bogus work-at-home offers, business opportunity scams, pyramid schemes and illegal lotteries. Billed as the largest international law enforcement project to fight fraud, the two-week surf was conducted primarily from Feb. 28 to March 10.
Warnings are now being sent via e-mail to the targeted sites with hyperlinks to http://www.consumer.gov, which contains information for consumers. The surf partners plan to continue to monitor the targeted sites to see if they’ve changed their claims in response to e-mail messages. Partners in the effort will “undertake a coordinated law enforcement effort to shut down sites that demonstrate they won’t comply with the law,” according to a statement by the FTC.
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