The government is about to launch a three-pronged attack on telemarketing fraud.
The plan calls for improved coordination among federal, state and local law enforcement agencies and consumer groups; a massive consumer protection mailing; and the creation of a national telemarketing fraud hotline.
Dubbed “Project No Fraud,” the plan was unveiled Saturday by President Clinton in his weekly radio address. These actions, the President said, are “sending a clear message to fraudulent telmarketers.”
“We’ve got your number and we won’t let you off the hook,” Clinton asserted.
Leading the crackdown on telemarketing fraud are the U.S. Postal Service, the American Association of Retired Persons, the Council of Better Business Bureaus, the U.S. Department of Justice, Federal Trade Commission, the Securities and Exchange Commission and all 50 state attorneys general through the National Association of Attorneys General.
President Clinton added that “to many of our most vulnerable citizens, especially our seniors, the greatest threat may not come from a criminal on the street, but from a scam artist on the phone. Telemarketing thieves are stealing more than money, they’re stealing people’s hopes and dreams and their security.”
According to the FBI fraudulent telemarketers annually rake in between $40 million and $60 million.
The President ordered Attorney General Janet Reno and the Justice Department to present him with a plan improving the coordination and cooperation among federal, state and local law enforcement groups to fight telemarketing fraud that include various major consumer groups as well. No time frame for filing of that plan was given.
Revealing plans for the “largest consumer protection mailing” in the nation’s history, President Clinton said that starting next Monday “every household in America will receive an easy-to-read postcard with common sense tips and practical guidelines to prevent telemarketing fraud,” such as not giving important personal financial information, such as checking, savings and credit card account numbers “to an unknown caller.”
He added that the government has opened a site on the Internet – www.consumer.gov- to receive complaints of suspected telemarketing fraud and to obtain fraud prevention information, and is in the process of setting up a toll-free telephone number for consumers to call about suspected telemarketing fraud.
Predicting that as many as 1.5 million consumers are expected to call the toll-free number, the President also said it “will provide links to law enforcement officials who will be able to share information and track down patterns of fraud.”
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