The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has Amendments finalized With its Telemarketing Sales Rule (TSR), it makes it easier to protect consumers who are tricked into paying scam tech support companies. The FTC could already go after these fraudulent companies if they initiated calls to people – now, they can do the same thing if people call scammers as well.
Fake tech support scams have been on the rise for years. The “company” sends scam emails, popups and other messages to trick people into thinking they have a virus or other problem. This encourages them to call a help desk, which convinces them to pay.
The FTC has long sought to recover money from these scammers. But as it explains in a Published proposals2021 Supreme Court Decision AMG Capital Management, LLC v. FTC limited its authority to do so. Without rewriting the rules, this meant the FTC could only go after companies when they made an outbound call, leaving many consumers who were duped by fortune messages.
Now, the TSR has been amended to remove “technical support services” from the list of services that are exempt from its rules. FTC has also been breaking down On Scam “Technical Support” Pop-Ups on Sites.
The FTC says older consumers over the age of 60 were five times more likely to fall victim to these scams, and collectively reported losses of more than $175 million. Earlier this yearThe FTC reported that bogus “geek squad” calls topped the list of scams, causing losses of up to $15 million.
