Consumer Alerts

There are prime numbers, irrational numbers, and Fibonacci’s numbers – but from a consumer protection perspective, no number is quite as sobering as the dollar amount that people reported losing to

I am honored to announce the creation of the Office of Technology (OT) at the Federal Trade Commission, a team that will provide technical expertise across agency matters and strengthen the agency’s

When Congress passed the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act of 1976, it created minimum dollar thresholds for mandatory premerger reporting. In 2000, Congress amended the HSR statute to

Romance scammers tell all sorts of lies to steal your heart and money, and reports to the FTC show those lies are working. Last year’s romance scam numbers looked a lot like 2021 all over again, and

“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

On December 14th, 2022, in collaboration with technologists on team CTO and attorneys in BCP, I gave a presentation at the Federal Trade Commission’s December Open Commission meeting on the systemic

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

Many people think scams mostly affect older adults. But reports to the FTC’s Consumer Sentinel tell a different story: anyone can be scammed. In fact, reports suggest that many scams are harming

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

From Super Bowl ads to Bitcoin ATMs, cryptocurrency seems to be everywhere lately. Although it’s yet to become a mainstream payment method, reports to the FTC show it’s an alarmingly common method for