Agencies Crack Down on Scams
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Make big bucks at home stuffing envelopes! Or designing websites! Or assembling refrigerator magnets!
That last come-on attracted an estimated 30,000 people, the government said Tuesday as it announced a crackdown on about 200 scam operations that falsely offered work-at-home and other questionable business opportunities.
Such schemes cheated tens of thousands of people out of more than $100 million, officials said.
In a monthlong crackdown on promoters of illegal business opportunity and work-at-home schemes, the Federal Trade Commission, the Justice Department, the Postal Inspection Service and law enforcement agencies from 14 states -- including California -- took civil and criminal action against more than 200 operations they said engaged in fraud or violated consumer protection laws.
FTC Chairman Deborah Platt Majoras says that although these offers may sound intriguing, many promise results that will never happen.
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