The Federal Trade Commission is going after bloggers, celebrities and tall tales in the first revision of its rules for endorsements and product reviews in nearly 30 years.
Starting Tuesday, many "robocalls" from telemarketers will be illegal.
With book deals, TV appearances and thousands of readers, moms who detail every moment of their domestic lives online produce some of the Web's most well-read blogs.
In his latest astutely staged gesture as grand economic reformer, President Obama this week directed his Treasury Department to deliver to Congress a 153-page bill creating a new agency to protect unwitting consumers against devious lenders.
According to the Federal Trade Commission, more complaints are lodged against the debt collection industry than any other.
The Federal Trade Commission is attempting to shut down three companies that the agency alleges have bombarded millions of consumers since 2007 with deceptive "robocalls" to sell them phony extensions to their original vehicle warranties.
Christine Varney has excellent timing. Just two days after the Obama administration's new head of antitrust enforcement announces that she will be a much tougher cop on the beat than her predecessor, the European Union says it is fining Intel $1.45 billion for using its market power to abuse its competitors.
Several associations in the alternative medicine industry have joined forces to warn against non-conventional remedies that claim to cure or prevent swine flu.
In the wake of an Obama administration program to rescue troubled homeowners, several federal agencies are teaming up to fight mortgage and foreclosure scams, Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner said Monday.
The federal government's plan to revive the ailing economy is stimulating business already - for con artists at least.
The Federal Trade Commission is going after bloggers, celebrities and tall tales in the first revision of its rules for endorsements and product reviews in nearly 30 years.
Starting Tuesday, many "robocalls" from telemarketers will be illegal.
With book deals, TV appearances and thousands of readers, moms who detail every moment of their domestic lives online produce some of the Web's most well-read blogs.
In his latest astutely staged gesture as grand economic reformer, President Obama this week directed his Treasury Department to deliver to Congress a 153-page bill creating a new agency to protect unwitting consumers against devious lenders.
According to the Federal Trade Commission, more complaints are lodged against the debt collection industry than any other.
The Federal Trade Commission is attempting to shut down three companies that the agency alleges have bombarded millions of consumers since 2007 with deceptive "robocalls" to sell them phony extensions to their original vehicle warranties.
Christine Varney has excellent timing. Just two days after the Obama administration's new head of antitrust enforcement announces that she will be a much tougher cop on the beat than her predecessor, the European Union says it is fining Intel $1.45 billion for using its market power to abuse its competitors.
Several associations in the alternative medicine industry have joined forces to warn against non-conventional remedies that claim to cure or prevent swine flu.
In the wake of an Obama administration program to rescue troubled homeowners, several federal agencies are teaming up to fight mortgage and foreclosure scams, Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner said Monday.
The federal government's plan to revive the ailing economy is stimulating business already - for con artists at least.
Tobacco companies can be sued under state laws for deceptive advertising of "light cigarettes," the Supreme Court ruled in a closely divided ruling Monday.
Six months after Rob Hruskoci closed his business, a debt collector called and demanded payment that day for the $5,000 balance on his business credit card.
The nation's largest food and beverage companies spent about $1.6 billion in 2006 marketing their products -- especially carbonated drinks -- to children, according to a Federal Trade Commission report
Linda Avey, co-founder of genetic testing company 23andMe, says genetic information can be illuminating, but ought to be taken with a grain of salt
Intel says it has received a subpoena from the Federal Trade Commission concerning its practices in the microprocessor market
The Federal Trade Commission unfurled Tuesday results of an enormous telemarketing fraud sweep, saying it had filed more than 180 cases that represent thousands of alleged victims and millions of dollars in losses.
For years, Big Pharma has kept competition from generic drug makers at bay by essentially paying its would-be rivals to stay out of its business. Now government watchdogs have declared war on these financial deals - a move that could bring cheaper drugs to market faster while costing giant drug developers billions in lost revenue.
A bogus e-mail warning consumers that cell phone numbers will soon be released to telemarketers is making the rounds again
The cherished dinner hour void of telemarketers could vanish next year for millions of people when phone numbers begin dropping off the national Do Not Call list
The cherished dinner hour void of telemarketers could vanish next year for millions of people when phone numbers begin dropping off the national Do Not Call list.
The Federal Trade Commission said Tuesday it warned more than 200 companies about "potentially deceptive" mortgage advertisements that give borrowers a false impression of the cost of home loans.
The Federal Trade Commission said Thursday it found no evidence of market manipulation by refiners and other sellers in gasoline prices - spiking at more than $3 a gallon during the summer of 2006.
A federal appeals court on Thursday cleared the way for Whole Foods Market Inc. to buy rival organic grocer Wild Oats Markets Inc.
A federal appeals court on Thursday denied a request from the Federal Trade Commission to temporarily block Whole Foods Market Inc. from merging with rival Wild Oats Markets Inc., a Whole Foods spokeswoman said.
Wild Oats Markets Inc said Monday that its acquisition by Whole Foods Market Inc. cannot yet close since an appeals court issued a stay, which was requested by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission.
U.S. antitrust authorities asked a federal court for permission to temporarily block organic grocer Whole Foods Market Inc.'s merger with rival Wild Oats Markets Inc., a spokesman for the Federal Trade Commission said Friday.
U.S. antitrust authorities wrapped up their arguments Wednesday against Whole Foods Market Inc.'s proposed acquisition of Wild Oats Markets Inc., telling a federal judge the deal was about eliminating competition.
Whole Foods Market Inc. and rival Wild Oats Markets Inc. head to court Tuesday, hoping to convince a federal judge to allow their proposed merger to proceed over the objections of U.S. antitrust authorities.
Whole Foods' $5.6 billion in sales make it the largest purveyor of organic and natural food. Its planned acquisition of Wild Oats would make it even bigger, but the government wants to halt the deal. The 53-year-old founder and CEO answers your questions about the merger as well as some from Fortune's Matthew Boyle.
Is the Whole Foods-Wild Oats merger dead or does the deal still have the faintest hope of a heartbeat?
Here's a staggering number: American consumers owe nearly two-and-a-half trillion dollars.
The marketers of four weight-control pills have agreed to pay a total of at least $25 million to settle allegations of deceptive advertising, the Federal Trade Commission announced Thursday
Besides extra pounds, dieters also seem to carry a hefty independent streak. A survey finds that 70 percent of Americans who are trying to lose weight are following their own diet plans and have no interest in seeking a doctor's help.
Like any reasonable person, John Niggeling, 56, deletes e-mails from African dictators offering him a share of their fortunes. He ignores print ads promising thousands of dollars a week working fro...
Simple, cost-effective steps to prevent data theft
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) said Thursday that the Austin Board of Realtors agreed to end a policy the FTC claims violates anti-trust laws and harms consumers by inflating costs.
REBATES WOULD SEEM TO BE THE PERFECT SALES TOOL. The promised savings bring in customers, many of whom never claim the rebate that drew them. University of South Carolina professor Timothy Silk est...
Government regulators are cracking down on companies that claim to remove negative information from consumer credit reports.
If you're looking for a loan, it's a very scary time. Interest rates are on the rise and with them, mortgage delinquencies are increasing.
We're all subject to life's little frustrations. Take, for example, those annoying subscription cards that fall out of magazines. It's enough to drive you batty.
Dear Armchair Millionaire: I just discovered that my identity was stolen. I'm in a bit of a panic -- what should I do to protect myself?
Every year an estimated 25 million people, or one out of every 10 Americans, are the victims of consumer fraud. Their collective losses: some $40 billion from telemarketing scams alone. Widespread ...
Authorities have cracked down on scores of "scam artists" across the United States who cheated thousands of consumers out of millions of dollars with illegal business ventures, officials said Tuesday.
When the CEO spells out his vision for a company, and the market buys into that strategy, pushing the company stock up from the teens to $77 in less than a year, what would you expect to happen when that vision actually starts materializing?
Federal regulators are targeting what they say is an elusive culprit contributing to the soaring hospital costs of recent years: mergers, Monday's Wall Street Journal reported.
The Federal Trade Commission charged a group of individuals and companies Tuesday with spamming sexually explicit advertisements that are against the law.
»CHECKING OUT Starting Oct. 28, your checks will be processed much more quickly, thanks to a federal law allowing banks to use electronic images of checks instead of waiting days to receive paper v...
"You'll be spammed if we do and spammed if we don't" --Federal Trade Commission spokesman on why the agency won't launch a do-not-spam registry, for fear spammers will target the list
You've been duplicated.
Not all telemarketers have gotten the hint that consumers really don't want to take their calls.
The Federal Trade Commission said Tuesday it won't endorse a national 'do-not-e-mail' registry, saying current plans are so flawed they might actually boost the amount of junk e-mail.
The Federal Trade Commission plans to require that pornographic e-mail spam carry explicit messages in what amounts to an electronic version of the plain brown wrapper, a person familar with the plan said.
The Federal Trade Commission has filed a complaint against National Consumer Council (NCC), alleging the debt negotiation program violated telemarketing rules by calling consumers on the national do-not-call registry, the agency said Wednesday.
The number of individuals falling victim to identity theft has soared while the Internet continues to prove a lucrative breeding ground for shady operators who are able to steal millions from unwitting victims.
If you plan to purchase exercise equipment to fulfill on one of your New Year's resolutions, there are a few things you need to know, experts say.
Just because you're afraid of having your identity stolen doesn't mean you're paranoid. Last year 161,819 people notified the Federal Trade Commission that they'd been victims of identity theft--an...
For the 31,147 angry consumers who filed telemarketing-related complaints with the Federal Trade Commission last year, help is on the way: The agency has proposed the creation of a national "do not...
When it comes to putting your faith in an online retailer, we know firsthand how easy it is to be burned. Two of the websites we recommended last month for holiday gifts, Pets.com and Garden.com, h...
John Kerry can relate. The Democratic senator from Massachusetts is also a former small business man who ran his own bakery at Boston's Faneuil Hall Market. So when the following tale was told at a...
Although there are no statistics on the prevalence of identify theft, experts say that the fraudulent use of names, Social Security numbers or credit cards is on the rise. What's certain is that ma...
Bo Corby couldn't believe his eyes: Looking through the telephone bills of his ten-person business, Simulator Training Inc. in Seattle, he found charges from a mysterious outfit in Minnesota called...
Are the words "Internet privacy" an oxymoron? Some folks think so--including Scott McNealy, CEO of hardware giant Sun Microsystems. In January, the notoriously motor-mouthed McNealy told a group of...
What's the biggest phone gripe these days? It's not slamming (finding your long-distance service switched without permission). It's "cramming," a rapidly growing phenomenon in which charges for unw...
Does the U.S. government care about our economy? It's a fair question, given that: (a) The Justice Department and 20 states are working to shackle Microsoft, one of the nation's most successful com...
An official-looking piece of mail from the Credit Card Bureau of America came to our attention recently, urging its recipient to phone a "credit monitoring hotline" for important credit report info...
Since MONEY ran its investigative report on Americans' eroding personal privacy last August, many of you have written to us demanding government action to protect your secrets (see Your Letters, pa...
Washington is like a magic show: It's all about illusion. Everywhere you look, it seems another industry is being deregulated. But behind the veil, plenty of strings are still attached. Looser cont...
Investment scams come in all stripes and sizes. The phony sweepstakes promising free trips to Hawaii, the eel farm offering outrageous returns, and the Florida real estate that turns out to be a sw...
Last month's sweeping tobacco settlement appears to herald a new era in which heavily regulated cigarette makers must disclose the true health hazards of their products and make do without popular ...
The proposed merger of Staples and Office Depot is being subjected to unusually close scrutiny--from bureaucrats, businessmen, and antitrust junkies everywhere. As of press time, the Federal Trade ...
MME. FAMILY VALUES
Lately, some credit-card issuers have been making it tough for customers to dispute unauthorized charges on their bills. The Federal Trade Commission, for example, has recently filed a lawsuit agai...
You're less likely to be scammed by a 900 number after Nov. 1. That's when an FTC rule kicks in requiring those toll-call services to tell you their cost as soon as you phone them. You'll then have...
New evidence that the thousands of computerized scholarship search services rarely deserve their $45 to $200 fees is coming from lawsuits filed by the Federal Trade Commission and state regulators....
Second-quarter corporate earnings reports will be out this month. Look for profits to be 10% lower than a year ago, signaling that the recovery hadn't begun. And the Federal Trade Commission will h...
After snoozing through much of the 1980s, the Federal Trade Commission seems to have recently stepped up efforts to protect consumers against fraudulent and misleading advertising and marketing cla...
Since the rare-coin market is risky and largely unregulated, many investors have begun to put their faith in services claiming to provide standardized appraisals by encasing coins in plastic slabs ...
If you're a TV viewer who mindlessly flicks through the channels with a remote control, the blazing car pictured above may be a familiar sight. It's a demonstration for Liquid Lustre car wax ($34.9...
Encasing rare coins in plastic slabs -- a practice pioneered just four years ago by fraud-conscious dealers -- was supposed to allow collectors to buy and sell with confidence. It hasn't worked out...
Every movie buff knows Kevin Costner got his first break as the recently deceased Alex in The Big Chill, but here's a real trivia question: How much would the real funeral actually have cost? Answe...
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