The Federal Trade Commission, Securities and Exchange Commission, United States Postal Inspection Service, three United States Attorneys, four state attorneys general, and two state regulatory agencies have filed 45 criminal and civil law enforcement actions against Internet scam artists and spammers.
In addition, the FTC and 21 U.S. and international agencies have launched an initiative to get organizations in 59 countries to close the open relays which help spammers avoid detection. Open relays allow third parties to route their e-mail through servers of other organizations, thereby disguising the real origin of the e-mail.
The FTC filed eight district court lawsuits, naming 20 defendants, to halt deceptive Web operations. These included a district court request to halt a defendants’ unauthorized billing and collection for videotext services accessed online; a Web-based tuition scam targeting college-bound students and their parents; two e-mail chain letter cases; a Web-based unsecured credit card scam; and a deceptive spam and Web site work-at-home scheme.
“Today’s Internet is not a lawless environment,” said Howard Beales, Director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection in a statement. “In fact, the NetForce partnership demonstrates the importance of enforcement on the Internet beat. We have the biggest impact on deceptive spammers and online scammers when law enforcement agencies band together to root out and prosecute fraud.”
In addition to the FTC cases, 11 other federal and state law enforcers brought 37 law enforcement actions. The agencies include the Attorneys General of Louisiana, Texas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas; the United States Attorneys for the District of New Mexico, the Western District of Louisiana, and the Northern District of Texas; the United States Postal Inspection Service; the Securities and Exchange Commission; Texas State Board of Pharmacy; and the Texas Department of Health.
Partners in the open relay project include the Attorneys General of Arkansas, Louisiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas; the Office of the U.S. Attorney for the District of New Mexico; the U.S. Postal Inspection Service; the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Ft. Worth Office; Texas Department of Health; Social Security Administration; Office of the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas; Oklahoma Department of Securities; Lubbock, Texas Police Department; Richardson, Texas Police Department; Arlington, Texas Police Department; Custer County, Oklahoma District Attorney’s Office. International partners include the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission; Industry Canada; Servicio Nacional del Consumidor (SERNAC); and the Japanese Delegation to OECD Committee on Consumer Policy.
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