Consumer Alerts

Privacy Awareness Week, an event organized by the Asia Pacific Privacy Authorities, is May 14-18, 2018. This year’s theme, “From Principles to Practice,” echoes the Federal Trade Commission’s mission

The idea of a perfume-like insect repellent that safeguards against dangerous mosquito-borne illnesses may sound great. But before making a rash decision, take a moment to consider whether the claims

An estimated 35 million Americans suffer from some degree of hearing loss. If you’re one of them, it’s important to know the difference between a hearing aid and a personal sound amplification product

Last year, we heard from small business owners about their cybersecurity challenges at a series of roundtable discussions the FTC hosted with some of its partners. What we learned is that small

Identity theft is hard enough. That’s why we keep working to make recovering from it easier. It’s also why we’re happy to let you know about an innovative project by the FTC and IRS that lets people

“Get started selling on Amazon and make $5,000 - $10,000 in the next 30 days… even if you’ve never sold anything online before.” That’s one of the pitches the promoters of a large get-rich scheme used

If you’re on the Do Not Call Registry, companies shouldn’t call you out of the blue to try and sell you something. In fact, it’s usually illegal. The FTC continues to take action against companies and

Persistence pays off. Three years ago, I told you the FTC and New York Attorney General (NY AG) announced complaints against debt collectors that allegedly used a slew of abusive and deceptive tactics

We’ve heard that people are getting official-looking emails about the Western Union settlement. The thing to know is that you cannot apply for a refund by email. The scam emails we’ve seen ask for

The FTC is mailing partial refunds to about 37,000 people who bought unnecessary tech support products and services from Inbound Call Experts, also known as Advanced Tech Support. People are eligible

When is the last time you reviewed the passwords to your bank account, e-mail or credit card accounts? Today is a good day to do it. Why? It’s National Password Day. Together with the Better Business

Scams affect people in every community, and the FTC offers information in several languages to help them spot and avoid fraud. For example, we have a new video for people in the Korean community and

Last week, we gave you an overview of the latest Consumer Sentinel Network Data Book. Today, let’s look a bit more closely at the data from military consumers. We got more than 113,000 reports from

Online peer-to-peer, or P2P, payment systems let you send money to people quickly. I’ve used them to collect money from the parents on my daughter’s soccer team and to send money to my brothers when

If your friend or loved one has cancer, you may have searched online for products to help them manage side effects from treatment. Unfortunately, some products you find online don’t live up to the

We’ve recently heard that scammers are recycling an old phishing attempt. In this version, scammers, posing as a well-known tech company, email a phony invoice showing that you’ve recently bought

The FTC has a long history of protecting people from scams. As part of its ongoing efforts to protect people in every community, the FTC recently took steps to stop two schemes harming older adults: a

The deadline to ask for your money back from the FTC’s settlement with Western Union is now May 31, 2018. That’s the settlement refunding people the money that scammers had them pay using Western

Running a small company or a home-based business requires laser-like focus. Of course, you want a web presence, but with everything else you have to do, you may decide to hire a web-hosting company to

It’s not just bitcoin. There are now hundreds of cryptocurrencies, which are a type of digital currency, on the market. They’ve been publicized as a fast and inexpensive way to pay online, but many