More than 90 businesses have been summarily closed by the Federal Trade Commission. Consumers lost millions, perhaps billions of dollars to businesses that defrauded them. Unemployed individuals were often targeted by these businesses. The companies offered work-at-home information and classes, promising thousands of dollars of income in just months. Resource for this article – Federal Trade Commission shuts down work-from-home companies by MoneyBlogNewz.
Concentrating on work from home businesses
The Federal Trade Commission worked with the DOJ to send out to United States work-at-home companies, notices of frozen assets. Due to the Operation Empty promises, these shutdowns along with criminal counts being filed both locally and on the state level have been integrated in an enforcement effort. The businesses supposedly tricked customers into doing work for a profit at home. There were many companies closed. The largest are:
- Ivy Capital
- Darling Angel Pin Creations Inc.
- Global U.S. Resources
- U.S. Work Alliance Inc.
- Preferred Platinum Services Network
- Abili-Staff Ltd.
- Entertainment Work Inc.
- La Asociacion Nacional de Trabajo
How much business fraud can cost a business
Lots of money has been lost by many individuals that have been a part of these fake companies. Classes were offered on "how to start your own business" through these businesses in calls from telemarketers. Usually between $2,000 and $30,000 was paid for these webinars. The telemarketers were responsible for finding out what the credit limit was for charge cards on the account of the cardholder and would charge around there. The majority of the companies did not respond when funds were requested. If they did respond, it was with a few hundred dollars only. About $40 million was earned by targeted business Ivy Capital because of this.
Hitting unemployed with this
By targeting unemployed individuals, these companies are making a bad situation worse. Even though the unemployment rate in the United States is going down, it is not going down easily. The "real" income is going down, even with a rise in jobs, since most people are taking jobst that pay less than they were making. The social service that is losing funding is having a harder time with this jobless recovery. The corporations are definitely being closed. Still, any victims will not be paid compensation more than likely.
Information from
Los Angeles Times
latimes.com/business/la-fi-ftc-scams-20110303,0,4514894.story
PC World
pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/221170/ftc_DOJ_crack_down_on_moneymaking_schemes.html
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