MilConsumer Blog Feed

Kaput. Kerflooey. On the fritz. Regardless of what you call it, when products break down, consumers have a choice. They can go back to the dealer. They can visit a local fix-it shop. Or they can try some DIY. But when companies place illegal restrictions on how and where people can get their stuff repaired, consumers see red – and they aren’t alone in that concern. The FTC has announced proposed settlements with grill maker Weber-Stephen Products...

Millions of Americans look to Walmart as their go-to place to pick up essentials. According to a complaint filed by the FTC , among the people who have come to rely on Walmart for their day-to-day needs are fraudsters who have allegedly used the retail giant’s money transfer services to bilk consumers out of millions of dollars. The FTC lawsuit charges that Walmart’s practice of looking the other way in the face of massive fraud and illegal...

You’d like to think you can count on your bae to treat you right, but not if you’re doing business with an outfit called Grant Bae. According to the FTC and the State of Florida , Grant Bae and its owner Treashonna P. Graham induce minority-owned small businesses to pay for grant writing and business consulting services with the false promise of “guaranteed” grants of between $25,000 and $250,000 – depending on how much people pay the defendants...

In a drive toward truth and transparency in the car buying process, the FTC is considering a rule designed to fight deceptive advertising, crack down on bait-and-switch marketing, and put a stop to hidden add-on charges when consumers go vehicle shopping. Read the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking and let us know what you think about what the FTC has in mind. Go all the way back to 1 F.T.C. 1 and you’ll see law enforcement actions in virtually every...

The dual dynamos that power our economy are America’s 32 million small businesses and the more than 60 million people they employ. So when small businesses become targets for misleading claims, deceptive tactics, and flat-out intimidation, the FTC takes notice. That’s the gist of the agency’s 2020 lawsuit against merchant cash advance outfit RCG Advances, LLC and owner Robert Giardina. A just-announced settlement will return more than $2.7...

The FTC’s seventh annual PrivacyCon is scheduled for November 1, 2022. It’s not the upcoming Bonnaroo festival, and it won’t be headlining Stevie Nicks, J. Cole, Herbie Hancock, and Robert Plant. But then again, how much can you learn about the latest privacy- and security-related trends and research from “Landslide”? Follow the Business Blog for updates about the agenda for the November 1st virtual event. And keep in mind another important date...

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 scammers to get peoples’ money. Since the start of 2021, more than 46,000 people have reported losing over $1 billion in crypto to scams [1] – that’s about one out of every four dollars reported lost, [2] more than any other payment method. The...

If one year equals seven in dog years, nine years is probably close to a century in technology time. That’s why the FTC is taking a fresh look at its guidance to businesses on digital advertising – and we’re asking for your input. The FTC published its original .com Disclosures guidance in 2000. The document was updated in 2013 to reflect developments in the digital marketplace. Now it’s time for a start-to-finish reboot, given the major changes...

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 will demonstrate that advertising for cryptocurrency has gone mainstream. Now here’s a metric that isn’t made up. According to the latest FTC Consumer Protection Data Spotlight , since the start of 2021, more than 46,000 people have reported losing...

For the second time this month, the FTC has sued a credit repair operation that it says combined fake promises to swiftly and substantially boost people’s credit scores with the offer of a bogus money-making opportunity selling credit repair services. In this latest case, the FTC says the supposed money-making opportunity was a pyramid scheme . The complaint alleges that Michigan-based Financial Education Services (FES), five related companies...