Fraud on the Internet: Scams Affecting Consumers : Hearing Before the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations of the Committee on Governmental Affairs, United States Senate, One Hundred Fifth Congress, Second Session, February 10, 1998

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Page 79 - USC §§1666 et. seq., which provides for the correction of billing errors on credit accounts. The Commission also enforces over 30 rules governing specific industries and practices, eg, the Used Car Rule, 16 CFR Part 455, which requires used car dealers to disclose warranty terms via a window sticker; the Franchise Rule, 16 CFR Part 436, which requires the provision of information to prospective franchisees; and the Telemarketing Sales Rule, 16 CFR Part 310, which defines and prohibits deceptive...
Page 79 - Act, which prohibits unfair methods of competition and unfair or deceptive acts or practices in or affecting...
Page 5 - Schneider, if you would please stand and raise your right hand. Do you swear that the testimony you are about to give to the Committee will be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you, God?
Page 283 - Commission files a complaint when it has "reason to believe- that the law has been or is being violated, and it appears to the Commission that a proceeding is in the public Interest.
Page 321 - An intentional perversion of truth for the purpose of Inducing another in reliance upon it to part with some valuable thing belonging to him or to surrender a legal right...
Page 105 - Anticipating the 21st Century: Consumer Protection in the New High-Tech, Global Marketplace," there was a broad consensus that meaningful consumer protection takes: (1) coordinated law enforcement against fraud and deception; (2) private initiatives and public/private partnerships; and (3) consumer education through the combined efforts of government, business, and consumer groups.
Page 88 - Commission's staff completed its investigation, filed a complaint, and obtained an ex parts temporary restraining order and asset freeze against the defendants within just 31 days of learning about the alleged scam. The lawsuit was recently resolved by entry of a stipulated permanent injunction against the main defendants named in the Commission's complaint and the issuance of a virtually identical administrative order against additional parties found to have played a role in the alleged scam. Under...
Page 88 - ... international long-distance call (and the charges for it) continued until the consumer turned off the computer — even if he or she left defendants' sites and moved elsewhere on the Internet, or left the Internet entirely to use a different computer program. Commission staff were first alerted to the Audiotex scheme by security experts at AT&T. The United States Secret Service assisted staff in ascertaining how this "Trojan horse" viewer software worked, and AT&T lent further assistance in tracing...
Page 87 - The Commission's investigators discovered the Credit Development International scam as part of an ongoing effort to monitor "spam" — also known less colloquially as unsolicited commercial e-mail ("UCE") — on the Internet. One theme sounded in the Commission's recent privacy hearings was that an ever-increasing volume of UCE strains the capacity of on-line service providers and threatens the development of the Internet as a conduit for commerce. For example, at the Commission's privacy hearings...
Page 85 - Publishing Group, Docket No. C-3665 (consent order, June 10, 1996); Robert Surveys, d/b/a Excel Communications, Docket No. C-3669 (consent order, June 12, 1996); Sherman G. Smith, d/b/a Starr Communications, Docket No. C-3668 (consent order, June 12, 1996). Alleged deceptive cash grant matching service RandolfD.

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