A fact pattern has been occurring more and more in the last few years. A consumer uses Google or another search engine to find a government agency or business’s phone number, and calls the first number that shows up asking for assistance, without realizing that number is not actually for the agency or business they want to speak with. The person they get on the phone says they can help the customer with the issue, and charges them some sort of fee for the assistance, a fee the consumer would not have been charged had they contacted the agency or business directly. This comes up frequently with respect to air travel, where scammers charge unsuspecting clients hundreds of dollars for changes that would be free on the airline’s own website.
Last week, the FTC announced it would be issuing an advanced notice of proposed rulemaking, seeking comment “whether to update its Rule on Impersonation of Government and Businesses or take other action to prevent online platforms from engaging in ad-optimization practices that may be furthering impersonation scams.” In particular, the agency “is seeking comment on the extent to which ad-optimization tools and services offered by social media, search engines and other digital marketplace platforms further efforts by scammers to impersonate legitimate businesses and government agencies using online ads.”
The ANPRM is scheduled to be published in the Federal Register tomorrow, and the comment period will be open for 60 days.
