The FTC worried about criminals using their good name? It's one bunch of criminals following another bunch of criminals!!!!!!!!

Eric in Gaithersburg has the right idea. Tell them yes, you'll send the money and waste some of THEIR time. String them along for as long as you can first.

The common thread in all these scams is Western Union. They and the scammers are the only ones making money. If they required prints to pick up money wired to someone, a lot of this crap would go away.
Oh, but wait - that would cut into their "legitimate" business dealing with the usual "clientele" that uses their money wiring services.

Didn't this happen in the movie, Matchstick Men? Seriously now? If you're looking for laws as preventative measure, you should reevaluate your intelligence. People should safegaurd themselves appropriately instead of crying when they're duped bc of something that is, clearly, pretty much their own fault.

"I've got news for her. The FTC doesn't have a good name among people who know how they conduct business. No tears being shed here."

What's interesting about the commenter who said this is that the website he links to is a snake oil scam, promising health and longevity if you give your credit card to be charged for his magic antioxidants.

Yes, I can see why he doesn't like the way the FTC does business, lol!

I realized how utterly disinterested the FTC was about things like spam, the DNC list, etc. when I went online recently to their complaint form, and discovered to my amusement that their form's spellchecker had flagged "spam" as a word it did not recognize.

I am in agreement with Gilbert Moore. Make punishments harsh for these people. And for you douchebags who think victims "deserved" to be defrauded, let me know when something tragic happens to you, and I'll be sure to arrive on your doorstep to point and laugh at you.

I agree. People who fall for this "lottery" scam almost deserve to lose money. I mean, come on, do you REALLY think someone is going to send you a million dollars if you give them $1,500 of your money? Like so many posters are saying, if they want $1,500, just take it out of your "winnings". Duh.

This scam works because it relies on people's "get something for nothing" greed: sure, I'll send $1,500 and get a million. That guy must be sucker for giving out a million for only $1,500. I got him real good.

I'm glad this happened to the FTC. Maybe now they will take serious the scammers and telemarketers who call us everyday ignoring the DNC list and using fake phone numbers. They curse at us and call us names when we tell them they cannot call us. The FTC is supposed to handle these reports and nothing ever happens. The phone companies should be forced to show the real numbers and names of these people calling us. Believe this! The phone company is very powerful in controlling the phone lines, but all they care about is profit.

Quoting from this article: "Recently, con artists have honed their techniques to invoke the names of federal agencies. In turn, the U.S. Justice Department has begun aggressively prosecuting such crimes."
Now we know what it takes to get law enforcement to begin to do something about ID theft...

I once received 9 Nigerian scam offers -- some variety of the we need help to get the money out of the country and you're our guy. While I found the variety of these amusing [I for a long time maintained a list of names used in these for reasons of self-amusement], sadly an older woman in a neighboring town was taken for $100,000 by a romance swindler who needed the money to get his dear orphans out of the country. The internet has become a cesspool, but yet amazingly the fact it is one the internet gives credibility to it. I agree the sentences should be stiffer for cyber crime.

Well, you have to py if you are stupid, not only tp "SMART" people. They (THE SMARTS) KNOW WELL THIS PRINCIPLE AN DESERVE TO BE PAID FOR THE USE OF THEIR SKILLS

Same, I just heard my all Deaf people who belived that scammer for eample, we had given Deaf kids, or you have won 150,000, or you got the package, for example FED EX aaol aim, the most dumb thing to say, conrats you have won 50,000 Plus Free Laptop from obama, OH PLEASE I wish they have e mail so i can forward to FED and let them arrest! im getting tired, one of three freind send 1,000 to the west union, and they lost if, so they got check and deposit, i had warned all Deaf people DONT belive PEOPLE just say things in aim, only Lottery that is REAL one form the store, thatyou picked the number thats it, not other e mail just dumb,

i wish things need to be very secuirty
Hope that will stop in future!

How many times do people need to be told this? I've known not to send money upfront for years. Sad that people are still so gullible.

When is everyone going to realize this whole credit score crock is just another tool all these "Financial Pirates" use to keep their criminal thumbs on the consumer? How much longer are we going to continue to be raped by them?

It is simple greed that makes these people fall for these scams. I have had several people call or email me about how I have won. My answer to them has always, been subtract the amount that you need from my winings and send me the balance. The never call or email me again.

OMG....How many times will people fall for this obvious fraud!

sorry, no sympathy for these folks. Duped? With all the warnings, they should know better. get something for nothing? LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL.......

"Our good name is being used to defraud people, and that's very disturbing," said Betsy Broder, head of the FTCs privacy and identity theft division.

I've got news for her. The FTC doesn't have a good name among people who know how they conduct business. No tears being shed here.

This is just futher proof that we need extremely harsh punishments for the criminals that carry out identity theft. ID Theft should be a federal felony, with a minimum of 20 years served in federal custody. And the criminal should be required to surrender all personal and co-owned assets of any value to their victims. Punishments need to be a deterrent. If a scammer believes that their own assets will be liquidated, including cars, houses, retirements funds (if any), bank accounts, etc, they might be less likely to do this. And if the spouses of these criminals knew they would be tossed out in the cold and made homeless, that would also be a deterrent factor. ID theft destroys people's lives, their credibility and respect, and their financial futures. Very little in the way of punishment is too harsh, in my opinion.

I guess PT Barnum was right. It just sucks that public education on this stuff usually comes in the form of a scam experience.

Just tell the caller to go ahead and take the insurance or processing fee or whatever else they want to it out of your winnings. What the heck I just won $500,000, go ahead and keep a couple of thousand for yourself as a tip.

It is so slipshod. Places like the FTC either haver computers of understaffed underpaid people do thier fact-checking. Of course, this will happen

Once more it boils down to the fact that a real sweepstake would not be asking for money up front for anything.

I have a better suggestion. Waste as much of the scammer's life-span as you can. I recieved one of these calls two weeks ago. I agreed to wire the "agent" $900. I didn't, of course, I just told him that so he would waste an hour of his life going to the Western Union only to find out I was jerking him around.

It is interesting (and rather scary) that in this day and age, people still fall for this scam.

Any time I get an email or phone call like this I go straight to the internet and "Google" it. Chances are I'm not the first to be contacted and someone has usually posted a warning or complaint. I know within seconds if it's legit or not. There's no excuse. When in doubt, do a search.

As the tech and consumer savy generation gets older, I wonder if frauds like this will decline in success rate?