 In August, at the DEF CON 22 conference for hackers, the FTC challenged the tech-savvy public to create the next-generation honeypot. A robocall honeypot is an information system designed to attract robocallers and help investigators and academics understand and combat illegal calls. This was the FTC’s second robocall challenge, and the agency’s first DEF CON competition. The three phases of the contest challenged participants to build a robocall honeypot, find vulnerabilities, and analyze honeypot data. DEF CON attendees showed great interest in the challenge and in learning more about the robocall problem. An expert panel of judges scored the submissions and selected the winners, based on functionality, accuracy, innovation, and creativity.
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In
the last few months, the Consumer Sentinel team held outreach and training sessions for
nearly 80 consumer protection authorities from the U.S., as well as the
Republic of Turkey’s Ministry of Customs and Trade. To attend the next online
Consumer Sentinel training session, contact sentinel@ftc.gov.
A U.S. Appeals
Court upheld a district court ruling that E.M.A. Nationwide and
several other defendants deceived consumers through a telemarketing scheme that
cold-called thousands of people pitching programs that would supposedly help
them pay, reduce, or restructure their mortgage and other debts. The district
court’s order permanently bars the defendants from working in the debt relief
or mortgage assistance industries, and requires them to pay more than $5
million in refunds to the affected consumers.
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In FY14, the FTC distributed more than 13.6
million copies of its publications, up from 11.8 million in FY13.
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The FTC filed a lawsuit against Butterfly
Labs, a company that charged people thousands of dollars
for specialized computers designed to produce Bitcoins, a payment system
sometimes referred to as “virtual currency.” According to the FTC, the company
and its operators, Darla Drake, Nasser Ghoseiri, and Sonny Vlesides, provided
computers that turned out to be practically useless by the time buyers received
them.
A
federal court stopped a telemarketing
scheme
that took millions of dollars from older consumers’ bank accounts without their
consent. According to the FTC’s complaint, Sun Bright Ventures LLC, Citadel ID
Pro LLC, and Benjamin Todd Workman tricked people into divulging their personal
information by claiming they would provide a new Medicare card or information
about Medicare benefits. The defendants then used the people’s personal
information to debit their bank accounts.
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The FTC has refreshed the
look and functions of its bulk order site
where you can easily request free publications. Visit FTC.gov/bulkorder to get
free copies of publications to give to friends, family, and colleagues or make
them available in your community.
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The
FTC’s online complaint site (which supplies many of the consumer complaints in Consumer Sentinel)
now allows consumers to add their mobile phone number, in addition to their work
and home numbers.
The Connecticut
Attorney General is the 48th Attorney General to join Consumer Sentinel. The Massachusetts Attorney General will soon become
the 20th state to share its complaint data with the Consumer
Sentinel Network. Does your office gather consumer complaint data? You can help
fellow Consumer Sentinel members boost their law enforcement capabilities by sharing
those complaints. Please contact sentinel@ftc.gov for details.
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In
the past few months, Consumer Sentinel has welcomed various kinds of law enforcers as members,
including police and sheriff’s offices from California, Georgia, Indiana,
Minnesota, New York, Oregon, and Pennsylvania. Other new members include the San
Francisco City Attorney's Office, Affirmative Litigation Task Force; the Federal
Retirement Thrift Investment Board, OERM Anti-Fraud Unit; and the Export
Import Bank, Office of Inspector General, Office of Investigations.
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All
North American Better Business Bureaus contribute data to Consumer Sentinel. Staff
expects the first Latin American contributions next year from three
nascent Mexican BBB collection systems in Mexico City, Monterrey, and Tijuana.
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