“Rah, rah-ah-ah-ah. Roma, roma-ma. Gaga, ooh-la-la. Want your bad romance.” This Valentine’s Day if you find yourself gaga over an online love, the Federal Trade Commission – yes, the FTC – has advice...

The workplace is in transition, with people considering career changes or dealing with layoffs. But as the FTC has warned for years, scammers find a way to exploit every trend – and this time they...

When home cooks bake an apple pie, many of them use Pyrex glass measuring cups – products promoted as, well, “American as apple pie.” But despite prominent claims that certain of their measuring cups...

It’s right up there with eating more vegetables and hitting the gym. A top New Year’s resolution for many Americans is keeping a closer eye on their personal finances – a goal more important than ever...

Weather emergencies don’t take a winter vacation. Scammers don’t either. Just like you, they’re watching the weather reports and preparing for storms – and they’re counting on catching you unawares...

For a substantial segment of the buying public, environmental claims are highly material. That’s why green consumers see red when companies use misleading representations to pitch their products and...

The FTC’s $275 million proposed settlement with Epic Games, owner of Fortnite, alleges the company violated the law by collecting personal information from kids under 13 without parental consent and...

Ask someone to picture the typical person who has experienced a scam and they may think of an older consumer taken in by a fast-talking fraudster. Regardless of the image they create, the results of...

Army brats like me grew up around the word “readiness.” We knew it meant weeks or even months of a parent away on deployment, training for “What if . . .” scenarios. One of the reasons so many...

We’re told the name Nebraska comes from the Otoe term Ñí Brásg, meaning “serene water.” The Platte River flows across the state until it converges with the Missouri. From there, it meets the...

Are we the only ones who remember C.W. McCall’s novelty song, “Convoy”? To paraphrase the lyrics of one of the few #1 hits about truckers, “Mercy sakes alive,” the FTC is “puttin’ the hammer down” on...

Globe-trotting swindlers may try to evade law enforcement agencies intent on bringing them to justice. But they’re not factoring in the tenacity of public servants like Assistant United States...

Let’s call it The Recliner Interval – the time it takes for an obscure niche product to start running prime time TV commercials. It’s a made-up metric, of course, but a few hours in front of the TV...

Scammers often target job seekers and prospective entrepreneurs with bogus employment and money-making offers. We know that because the FTC has investigated and stopped many of them. But scammers are...

For people who prefer to buy Made in USA merchandise, products from Lithionics Battery LLC seemed like an attractive option. According to the FTC, Lithionics and General Manager Steven Tartaglia used...

Consumers’ health information is already a particularly sensitive category. But health information and other personal data from kids as young as eight? That can raise privacy concerns to the...

In the old TV show Dragnet, Sergeant Joe Friday was famous for saying “Just the facts, ma’am.” But like “Play it again, Sam” in Casablanca, that quotable quote was never actually said by the lead...

It’s a “tale as old as time.” But unlike Beauty and the Beast, in the online version, the transformation often goes in the opposite direction with the entrancing lover ultimately revealed to be a...

Social media is a gold mine for scammers, and in the latest FTC Data Spotlight, we’re digging deeper into this deceptive trend happening across social media platforms. Why do we repeatedly ask people...

Gift cards may be at the top of your holiday gift giving list. But there’s another list that gift cards top , and it’s decidedly less festive. According to the FTC’s latest Consumer Protection Data...