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Every year the FTC brings hundreds of cases against individuals and companies for violating consumer protection and competition laws that the agency enforces. These cases can involve fraud, scams, identity theft, false advertising, privacy violations, anti-competitive behavior and more. The Legal Library has detailed information about cases we have brought in federal court or through our internal administrative process, called an adjudicative proceeding.
Two Nevada companies and two individuals have agreed to stop charging consumers thousands of dollars to apply for multiple credit cards in their names in order to pay for expensive and often ineffective training programs under a proposed settlement of a Â鶹´«Ã½ Trade Commission lawsuit.
The FTC filed a federal court complaintalong with a proposed settlement which requires the defendants to stop obtaining credit cards for consumers for a fee. In addition, the defendants will be required to pay $2.1 million under the proposed settlement, which will be distributed by the FTC to consumers.
In September 2021, The Â鶹´«Ã½ Trade Commission sent checks totaling more than $2 million to consumers who were harmed by the company.
The operators of a business coaching scheme will pay at least $1.2 million to settle Â鶹´«Ã½ Trade Commission charges that they targeted people who were trying to start new businesses online and used deception to sell them bogus marketing products and services.
According to the FTC’s complaint, Position Gurus and Top Shelf Ecommerce, and their owners Aaron Poysky, Stacy Griego and Samuel Cohen Brown, targeted consumers who were looking for ways to make money by starting retail businesses on the Internet. The defendants found many of their targets by purchasing consumers’ contact information from other online business coaching operations that had already deceived the targets. In August 2021, the FTC sent refunds totaling more than $1.5 million to defrauded consumers.
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The Â鶹´«Ã½ Trade Commission has permanently bannedan alleged work-from-home scammer from selling or promoting business opportunities and from using robocalls under the terms of a settlement.
The FTC alleged that Randon Morris and a number of companies he controlled initiated millions of robocalls nationwide to promote sham work-from-home business opportunities, focusing on consumers concerned about working outside their homes because of the coronavirus pandemic. The defendants lured consumers into purchasing these programs with false promises that consumers could earn hundreds of dollars a day. They also falsely claimed to be affiliated with Amazon.com.
The owners of a scam that targeted Latina consumers with promises of wealth and financial security are permanently prohibited from selling money-making opportunities under the terms of a settlement with the Â鶹´«Ã½ Trade Commission.
In a complaint filed as part of the FTC’s Operation Income Illusion sweep, the agency alleged that Moda Latina BZ Inc., Esther Virginia Fernandez Aguirre, and Marco Cesar Zarate QuÃroz specifically targeted Latina consumers in Spanish-language ads on TV with false promises of earnings at home.
The Â鶹´«Ã½ Trade Commission alleged that the defendants operated a multi-million dollar business coaching scheme known as Digital Altitude that they deceived consumers by claiming they could earn "six figures in 90 days."
The Â鶹´«Ã½ Trade Commission is sending refunds totaling nearly $4.7 million to people who lost money as a result of the scheme.
The marketer of a scheme to make money on Amazon, and his companies, are banned from marketing and selling business opportunities and business coaching services under a settlement with the FTC. The settlement order against Jeffrey A. Gomez (aka Jeffrey Adams), Adams Consulting LLC, and Global Marketing Services L.L.C. also requires them to surrender funds and assets for consumer redress. In August 2020, the FTC returned more than $9.1 million to consumers defrauded through the scheme.
The operators of a work-from-home scheme and the CEO of their main affiliate marketing network agreed to pay nearly $1.5 million to settle Â鶹´«Ã½ Trade Commission allegations that they used misleading spam emails to lure consumers into buying work-from-home services.Ìý
Rent-to-own operators Aaron’s Inc., Buddy’s Newco, LLC, and Rent-A-Center, Inc. agreed to settle FTC charges that they negotiated and executed reciprocal purchase agreements in violation of federal antitrust law. The complaints allege that from June 2015 to May 2018, Aaron’s, Buddy’s, and Rent-A-Center each entered into anticompetitive reciprocal agreements with each other and other competitors. The three proposed consent agreements prohibited the rent-to-own companies and their franchisees from entering into any reciprocal purchase agreement or inviting others to do so, and from enforcing the non-compete clauses still in effect from the past reciprocal purchase agreements.After a public comment period, the Commission announced the final consent agreements.
Rent-to-own operators Aaron’s Inc., Buddy’s Newco, LLC, and Rent-A-Center, Inc. agreed to settle FTC charges that they negotiated and executed reciprocal purchase agreements in violation of federal antitrust law. The complaints allege that from June 2015 to May 2018, Aaron’s, Buddy’s, and Rent-A-Center each entered into anticompetitive reciprocal agreements with each other and other competitors. The three proposed consent agreements prohibited the rent-to-own companies and their franchisees from entering into any reciprocal purchase agreement or inviting others to do so, and from enforcing the non-compete clauses still in effect from the past reciprocal purchase agreements.After a public comment period, the Commission announced the final consent agreements.
Rent-to-own operators Aaron’s Inc., Buddy’s Newco, LLC, and Rent-A-Center, Inc. agreed to settle FTC charges that they negotiated and executed reciprocal purchase agreements in violation of federal antitrust law. The complaints allege that from June 2015 to May 2018, Aaron’s, Buddy’s, and Rent-A-Center each entered into anticompetitive reciprocal agreements with each other and other competitors. The three proposed consent agreements prohibited the rent-to-own companies and their franchisees from entering into any reciprocal purchase agreement or inviting others to do so, and from enforcing the non-compete clauses still in effect from the past reciprocal purchase agreements.After a public comment period, the Commission announced the final consent agreements.
The Â鶹´«Ã½ Trade Commission is mailing checks totaling more than $1 million to individuals targeted by a business opportunity scheme that promised consumers big profits from selling on Amazon.
A group of affiliate marketers who lured consumers into a business coaching and investment scheme known as My Online Business Education (MOBE) will surrender millions of dollars in assets to settle Â鶹´«Ã½ Trade Commission charges.
The FTC will be mailing refund checks totaling more than $2.2 million to people who lost money to an alleged pyramid scheme operated by Vemma Nutrition Company.
The FTC is mailing 53,595 refund checks totaling $748,070 to consumers nationwide who signed up for an online auction kit that was supposed to be free, but wasn’t. The kit actually cost consumers up to $59.95 per month if they failed to cancel a trial membership in a business opportunity program called Online Supplier.
The Â鶹´«Ã½ Trade Commission mailed 1,177 checks totaling more than $380,000 to people who paid for purported business coaching services that were marketed as a way to help them earn thousands of dollars a month.
The Â鶹´«Ã½ Trade Commission mailed checks totaling nearly $1.1 million to 87,256 consumers who paid for work-at-home opportunities based on the allegedly deceptive advertising practices of Bob Robinson, LLC and other related defendants. The defendants operated under various brand names, including Work At Home EDU, Work At Home Program, Work At Home Ecademy, Work At Home University, Work At Home Revenue, and Work at Home Institute.
The defendants in an alleged work-from-home business opportunity scam are banned from selling any business coaching service or business opportunity under a settlement with the Â鶹´«Ã½ Trade Commission.