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The FTC focuses most of its time and attention on protecting consumers and promoting competition. Every so often, we stop and take stock. For example, check out our just-released Annual Highlights for a detailed round-up of some of the FTC’s 2018 consumer protection accomplishments.

  • Giving back. One of the most noteworthy gains for consumers is the FTC’s settlement with MoneyGram. The complaint charged that MoneyGram didn’t live up to its obligations to reduce fraud in its money transfer system. Under the terms of the settlement, the FTC got $125 million for people who wired money through MoneyGram and lost it to scammers.
  • Setting records. The FTC set some new records for relief, namely: its largest civil penalty against a background screening company; its largest civil penalty in a children’s privacy case, which involved a video social networking app; and its largest judgment against an advertising agency.
  • Order up! The FTC obtained 78 orders for redress, disgorgement, and permanent injunctions; 19 administrative orders; 12 orders for civil penalties; and 3 for contempt.
  • Say yes to redress. More than 2.2 million consumers got back $439 million in redress directly from the FTC, and more than $1.3 billion in FTC cases in which the redress was administered by defendants. And, yes, that’s billion with a b.
  • Breaking news. 1.2 million people subscribed to get email updates from the FTC.
     
     

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The purpose of this blog and its comments section is to inform readers about Federal Trade Commission activity, and share information to help them avoid, report, and recover from fraud, scams, and bad business practices. Your thoughts, ideas, and concerns are welcome, and we encourage comments. But keep in mind, this is a moderated blog. We review all comments before they are posted, and we won’t post comments that don’t comply with our commenting policy. We expect commenters to treat each other and the blog writers with respect.

  • We won’t post off-topic comments, repeated identical comments, or comments that include sales pitches or promotions.
  • We won’t post comments that include vulgar messages, personal attacks by name, or offensive terms that target specific people or groups.
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We don't edit comments to remove objectionable content, so please ensure that your comment contains none of the above. The comments posted on this blog become part of the public domain. To protect your privacy and the privacy of other people, please do not include personal information. Opinions in comments that appear in this blog belong to the individuals who expressed them. They do not belong to or represent views of the Federal Trade Commission.

Nagendra mahato
March 27, 2019
Thank you so much .
Frequent Flyer
March 27, 2019
The FTC has much on it's plate in these times we live in. The internet provides easy access to advertisment, new products, ways to make money and just a barrage of informatIon to consumers. Unfortunately with that and more often than not come new Scams and new ways to take hard earned money from consumers. I suppose in a perfect world the FTC would have the resources needed to be one step ahead of everything for every one of us and they would get all the acknowledgment they deserve. A nice thought. ( After all, what's more important to a government than at the very least, protecting It's people from loosing the one thing they need most to survive in these times). But this is today and the reality is that many times we are unfortunately "on our own". With that I, for one want to say "thank you" to the FTC for all your office "does" manage to do for Consumers. I happen to be someone with first hand knowledge of what you can do and the importance your office places on consumers. A few years back I surprisingly receivied a $6,000+ check in the mail that I was only able to get back thriough an investigation of the company by your office. That was so much money to me that I felt as though I had won a lottery! In closing and from a (young) senior citizen who would like to continue to be a "consumer" for a long time to come, may I simply say ... Thank you. Thank you. And thank you.
Claudia P Muller
April 01, 2019
Do I have a chance to get a reward from moneygram? I used to send money transfer by them.
FTC Staff
April 02, 2019

In reply to by Claudia P Muller

  The FTC and the Department of Justice reached a settlement with MoneyGram for $125 million. That money will eventually go back to people who used MoneyGram to send money to a scammer, starting in 2013.

People will be eligible to ask for a refund if they sent money between certain dates, but the FTC has not announced the final date range.

The FTC will post information about the refund program at FTC.gov/MoneyGram.

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