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U.S. Court Halts Counterfeit Check and Prize Scam
At the request of the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, a federal court has ordered a permanent halt to a lottery and prize-promotion scam that used counterfeit cashier’s checks and false promises of large cash prizes to bilk consumers out of thousands of dollars each. The court’s order includes a $1 million judgment against the operators of the scam. The case was coordinated under Project Emptor, the British Columbia Telemarketing Task Force, which includes the Business Practices and Consumer Protection Authority of British Columbia, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, the Canadian Competition Bureau, the FTC’s Northwest Region, the FBI’s Los Angeles office, and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service.
To assist the FTC’s foreign partners, the FTC staff employed the U.S. SAFE WEB Act. Passed by Congress in 2006, the Act recognizes that practices harmful to consumers, such as telemarketing and mail fraud, are increasingly global in scope, and it strengthens the FTC’s ability to cooperate with foreign counterparts in combating these practices. Specifically in this matter, the Act permitted the FTC staff to share key information obtained in the FTC investigation with Canadian partners for use in the related Canadian law enforcement investigation and proceeding.
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