The Federal Trade Commission has approved final amendments to its Telemarketing Sales Rule, including a change that will help protect consumers from fraud by prohibiting four discrete types of payment methods favored by con artists and scammers.
The rule changes will stop telemarketers from dipping directly into consumer bank accounts by using certain kinds of checks and “payment orders” that have been “remotely created” by the telemarketer or seller. These two payment mechanisms make it easy for unscrupulous telemarketers to debit bank accounts without consumers’ permission, and can make it difficult to reverse the transactions with consumers’ banks.
The FTC's press release, with a link to the new rule, is here.
