Consumer Alert
Military consumers and romance scams
By
Carol Kando-Pineda
Counsel, FTC’s Division of Consumer and Business Education
July 6, 2023
For Military Consumer Month, let’s talk a little about how romance scammers target people who support the troops — and sometimes servicemembers themselves. These scammers can be any age, gender, or sexual orientation and may approach you on dating sites or on social media platforms. In 2022, nearly 70,000 people reported a romance scam to the FTC — and losses hit a staggering $1.3 billion.
These scammers may steal photos of real military personnel for their profiles. They might say they need cash to apply for a “leave request” to visit you. Or to pay for food and medical treatment during their deployment. One recent twist involves romance scammers pretending to be U.S. troops deployed to Ukraine where there’s no U.S. military presence. The scammers ask you to send them care packages by wiring money through an official-looking (but fake) military website. (Servicemembers never have to pay to get packages, food, medical treatment, or to take leave.)
How can you avoid a romance scam?
- If an online love interest asks you for money — especially using gift cards, wire transfers, payment apps, or cryptocurrency — that’s a scam. Period.
- If someone appears on your social media and rushes you — to start a friendship or romance, or to get into a “great” investment opportunity (maybe in crypto) — slow down. Talk to someone you trust before you respond. Try a reverse image search of profile pictures. If the details don’t match up, it’s a scam.
- If you suspect someone is a scammer, cut off contact. Tell the online app or social media platform right away, and then tell the FTC at ReportFraud.ftc.gov.
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For Release
FTC Action Leads to Industry Bans for Operators of ‘Extended Vehicle Warranty’ Scam
Proposed court order prohibits defendants from all outbound telemarketing activity and from extended automobile warranty marketing
July 6, 2023
Tags:
- Consumer Protection
- Regional Offices
- Southeast Region
- Bureau of Consumer Protection
- Cars
- deceptive/misleading conduct
- Automobiles
- Advertising and Marketing
- Online Advertising and Marketing
- Telemarketing
A Federal Trade Commission lawsuit against the operators of a telemarketing scam that called hundreds of thousands of consumers nationwide pitching “extended automobile warranties” will result in a lifetime ban from any outbound telemarketing business and from any involvement with extended automobile warranty sales.
The FTC first charged Kole Consulting Group and its owner, Daniel Kole, as some of the defendants running the American Vehicle Protection (AVP) operation that scammed consumers out of millions of dollars in February 2022. In its complaint, the FTC charged that AVP made unsolicited calls in which it claimed to be affiliated with vehicle makers and deceptively claimed its products, which cost thousands of dollars, offered “bumper to bumper” protection.
“Kole and AVP blasted consumers with illegal calls and made bogus claims about bumper-to-bumper warranties,” said Samuel Levine, Director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection. “Today’s order bans Kole and his company from the extended auto warranty industry and imposes a monetary judgment of $6.6 million, continuing the Commission’s aggressive crackdown on telemarketing fraud.”
The proposed court order in the case, which the defendants have agreed to, includes the bans from extended automobile warranty marketing and outbound telemarketing. The order also includes a monetary judgment of $6.5 million, which is partially suspended based on the defendants’ inability to pay; Kole will be required to surrender $500,000. If the defendants are found to have lied to the FTC about the financial status, the full judgment would be immediately payable.
The FTC previously announced a settlement with the other defendants in the case in March 2023.
The Commission vote approving the stipulated final orders was 3-0. The FTC filed the proposed orderin the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida.
NOTE: Stipulated final orders have the force of law when approved and signed by the District Court judge.
The staff attorneys on this matter are Harold Kirtz, Hans Clausen, and Chris Gleason of the FTC’s Southeast Region.
The Federal Trade Commission works to promote competition and protect and educate consumers. Learn more about consumer topics at consumer.ftc.gov, or report fraud, scams, and bad business practices at ReportFraud.ftc.gov. Follow the FTC on social media, read consumer alerts and the business blog, and sign up to get the latest FTC news and alerts.
Contact Information
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Business Blog
Watching the detectives: Suspicious marketing claims for tools that spot AI-generated content
By
Michael Atleson, Attorney, FTC Division of Advertising Practices
July 6, 2023
A common trope crossing the science fiction and mystery genres is a human detective paired with a robot. Think I, Robot, based on the novels of Isaac Asimov, or Mac and C.H.E.E.S.E., a show-within-a-show familiar to Friends fans. For our purposes, consider a short-lived TV series called Holmes & Yoyo, in which a detective and his android partner try to solve crimes despite Yoyo’s constant malfunctions. Let’s take from this example the principle – it’s elementary – that you can’t assume perfection from automated detection tools. Please keep that principle in mind when making or seeing claims that a tool can reliably detect if content is AI-generated.
Image
In previous posts, we’ve identified concerns about the deceptive use of generative AI tools that allow for deepfakes and voice cloning and for manipulation-by-chatbot. Researchers and companies have been working for years on technological means to identify images, video, audio, or text as genuine, altered, or generated. This work includes developing tools that can add something to content before it is disseminated, such as authentication tools for genuine content and ways to “watermark” generated content.
Another method of separating the real from the fake is to use tools that apply to content after dissemination. In a 2022 report to Congress, we discussed some highly worthwhile research efforts to develop such detection tools for deepfakes, while also exploring their enduring limitations. These efforts are ongoing with respect to voice cloning and generated text as well, though, as we noted recently, detecting the latter is a particular challenge.
With the proliferation of widely available generative AI tools has come a commensurate rise in detection tools marketed as capable of identifying generated content. Some of these tools may work better than others. Some are free and some charge you for the service. And some of the attendant marketing claims are stronger than others – in some cases perhaps too strong for the science behind them. These tools may have other flaws, such as not being able to detect images or video that a generative AI tool has only lightly edited, or a bias against non-English speakers when attempting to detect generated text.
Here’s what to deduce:
- If you’re selling a tool that purports to detect generative AI content, make sure that your claims accurately reflect the tool’s abilities and limitations. To go back to our trope, for Knight Rider fans, that means your claims should be more in line with KITT and less than with its bad twin, KARR.
- If you’re interested in tools to help detect if you’re getting the good turtle soup or merely the mock, take claims about those tools with a few megabytes of salt. Overconfidence that you’ve caught all the fakes and missed none can hurt both you and those who may be unfairly accused, including job applicants and students.
Wouldn’t it be nice to live in a techno-solutionist land in which a simple gadget could easily and effectively handle all difficult AI issues of our day? No such luck. Our agency can address some of these issues using real-world laws on the books, though, and those laws apply to marketing claims made for detection tools.
Tags:
- Consumer Protection
- Bureau of Consumer Protection
- Advertising and Marketing
- Advertising and Marketing Basics
- Privacy and Security
- Tech
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