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The Rule of 7 in marketing says people need to hear a message at least seven times before they act on it. The latest Data Spotlight from the FTC, “False alarm, real scam” has some messaging to share (repeatedly) with your staff and colleagues. Share it in your company newsletter, email signature block, or posted in the office pantry, bulletin board, water cooler, or internal website. Because the last thing you want are team members who have to face the disastrous loss of their own life savings — or a family member’s retirement.

Reports to the FTC show a growing wave of scams aimed squarely at retirees’ life savings. These scammers pretend to be from known and trusted government agencies and businesses. And, in an ironic twist, recent scams use fake security alerts and other false alarms to prey on older adults’ vigilance about protecting their money and identity to steal from them. [1] Some people 60+ have reported emptying their bank accounts and even clearing out...

After a careful search, you hired the perfect employee. You can’t wait to share the good news on your business’s website and social media. Go ahead and shout it from the virtual rooftop, but know that it’s not only potential clients and competitors who’ll get the alert. Scammers are watching, too — and they might use the update to target your new employee.

We are excited to announce the publication of the first peer-reviewed journal article coming out of the FTC’s Physician 6(b) study. The paper, published in the May 2025 issue of Health Affairs Scholar, provides an overview of the merger activity within 15 states between 2015 and 2020 (inclusive). The study identifies approximately 2,000 physician mergers during that period and characterizes the mergers in several ways, including: 38% of doctors...

The FTC is cracking down on companies attempting to deceive people seeking treatment for addiction. An example of this effort is the FTC’s recently filed settlement to resolve allegations that Evoke Wellness and two of its executives used illegal tactics to trick people seeking substance use disorder treatment services.

If you prescribe eyeglasses or contact lenses, you must give patients copies of their prescriptions any time you perform a refraction exam. Even if the patient doesn’t ask for it. At no extra charge.

This week, just in time for the start of football ticket sales season, the FTC announced Bureau of Consumer Protection staff sent a warning letter to a company in the business. The issue? According to the letter, the ticket seller may have been violating the FTC’s Rule on Unfair or Deceptive Fees (Fees Rule), which went into effect May 12. The Fees Rule prevents deception by requiring businesses to display the total price for live-event tickets...

It’s advertising law 101: before you claim your product can perform a certain task, you need evidence it will work as promised. If your product doesn’t live up to the hype, you’ll have to deal with the consequences—which could include a potential FTC lawsuit. That’s the lesson from a recently announced settlement between the FTC and accessiBe, a company that advertised its online plug-in as a fully automated tool to make any website compliant...

According to the FTC’s latest Data Spotlight, text scam losses are skyrocketing. In 2024 people reported $470 million in losses to text scams, more than five times the amount reported in 2020. Check out the Data Spotlight for more information. Want to help your employees spot and avoid the most common text scams highlighted by the Data Spotlight? Check out the FTC’s Consumer Alert with details and advice. Here are a few examples of text scams...

It’s hard not to glance at your phone when you hear the ding of an incoming text. Scammers bet on it. And reports to the FTC’s Consumer Sentinel Network suggest their odds of a big payout have improved: reported losses to text scams have skyrocketed even as the number of reports declined. In 2024, people reported $470 million in losses to these scams, more than five times the 2020 number. And since the vast majority of frauds are never reported, this number likely reflects only a fraction of the actual harm.