FTC Sues to Stop Mercury Marketing and Others from Deceptively Advertising Substance Use Disorder Treatment Clinics

The FTC alleges that Mercury Marketing and other defendants violated the FTC Act, the Opioid Addiction Recovery Fraud Prevention Act, and the FTC’s Impersonation Rule The Federal Trade Commission filed a complaint today alleging that Mercury Marketing, LLC, and other defendants impersonated substance use disorder treatment clinics in Google search ads to deceptively route consumers trying to call … Read more

FTC Case Leads to Order Banning Ascend Ecom and Its Owners from Business Opportunity Marketing

Proposed settlement would ban business ‘coaching’ and require defendants to turn over assets The operators of Ascend Ecom, an online business opportunity that allegedly cost consumers millions of dollars, will be banned from selling business opportunities and required to turn over assets to the Federal Trade Commission under the terms of a proposed court order. … Read more

Walmart to Pay $10 Million to Settle FTC Allegations it Allowed Scammers to Obtain Millions from Consumers Using Company’s Wire Transfer Services

Court order also requires Walmart to take actions to detect and prevent wire transfer fraud Walmart will pay $10 million to settle Federal Trade Commission charges that it turned a blind eye to scammers who used its in-store money transfer services to take hundreds of millions of dollars from U.S. consumers. View Press Release

Operator of Ganadores Ecommerce and Real Estate Business Opportunity Scam Faces Lifetime Ban as a Result of FTC Action

Proposed order would ban Robert Shemin from marketing any ecommerce or real estate coaching services Robert Shemin, an operator of the Ganadores scam that made false or unsubstantiated earnings claims in selling real estate and ecommerce business opportunities, will be banned from the industry and required to turn over assets as a result of a … Read more

Paddle Will Pay $5 Million to Settle FTC Allegations of Unfair Payment-Processing Practices and Facilitation of Deceptive Tech-Support Schemes

Under proposed order, Paddle will also be permanently banned from processing payments for tech-support telemarketers U.K.-based payment processor, Paddle.com Market Limited, and its subsidiary, Paddle.com, Inc., will pay $5 million and be permanently banned from processing payments for tech-support telemarketers. This settles a Federal Trade Commission action alleging that Paddle abused the U.S. credit-card system … Read more