FTC Attorney Shares Online Scams
Fran Marie interviewed Katherine Aizpuru, Attorney at Law with the FTC’s Division of Financial Practices. Aizpuru didn’t work on that particular case, but we’ve heard that Epic Games agreed to pay out at least $500 million to the FTC and to consumers. That was due to in-game purchases and alleged privacy violations from young players. When violating COPPA laws, you must pay. COPPA is a federal law that stands for The Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998. This case evolved as the FTC levied a $275 million fine, and hit Epic with an additional $245 million fine for the use of manipulative “dark patterns” on its gaming platforms, for a total of $520 million.
We quickly moved the conversation to romance scams, and with Valentine’s Day nearing spread the word about love scams. Most of those scams are online dating sites. In 2021 online daters got scammed to the tune of $547 million. To some extent, we have to thank that TV show called ‘Catfished’ because some of us didn’t know. We also discussed the infamous Bitcoin scams some of us are experiencing. Listen to that show below or click this link.
