Thread: U.S. Government shutting down FAKE NEWS sites

FTC Shuts Down Two More Fake News Sites

By Ashlee Kieler May 4, 2015

A link from Sale Slash takes consumers to this fake news site.

For years, the Federal Trade Commission has been combatting scammy marketers of weight-loss products who use fake news sites, fictional reporters, and bogus celebrity endorsements, but people keep trying to pull these cons on consumers. This morning, the FTC announced yet another takedown of a sketchy diet pill marketer using lookalike news sites to sell its products.

The FTC announced that it obtained a court order temporarily halting California-based Sale Slash and Purists Choice from peddling supposed weight-loss supplements; a first step in recovering funds lost by consumers who purchased the company’s products.

According to the FTC complaint [PDF], since at least 2012 the companies used affiliate marketers to deceptively advertise and sell a variety of weight-loss supplements including Premium Green Coffee, Pure Garcinia Cambogia, Premium White Kidney Bean Extract, Pure Forskolin Extract, and Pure Caralluma Fimbriata Extract.

The hired marketers routinely sent illegal spam emails and posted banner ads online that led consumers to fake news sites designed to appear as if an independent consumer reported, rather than a paid advertiser, had reviewed and endorsed the products.

The FTC alleges that these fake news sites made false weight-loss claims and used phony celebrity endorsements – including one from Oprah – to promote the diet pills.

Much like previous fake news sites used photos of French newswoman Mélissa Theuriau for their fake “Staff Reporter Helen Hasman,” the example above uses an image of BBC news presenter Ellie Crisell for the fictional “Staff Reporter Helen Crisell.” In fact, the real Crisell has not only repeatedly warned her Twitter followers about this fakery, her Twitter profile now clearly states “I DO NOT endorse any weight loss pills!”

Marketers allegedly used stolen email user accounts to send the users’ contacts spam messages so that the emails looked to be from a friend or family member instead of the company’s affiliates.

The emails typically contained short messages such as, “Breaking news…” or “Hi! Oprah says it’s excellent,” followed by hyperlinks to the products.

Banner ads used by the marketers generally including claims such as “1 Tip for a tiny belly,” “Cut down on a bit of your belly every day following this 1 old weird tip,” and “Garcinia Cambogia Exposed – Miracle Diet or Scam?”

Each time a consumer clicked the banner through to one of the fake news sites and purchased the supplement, Sale Slash and Purists Choice paid the marketer a commission, according to the FTC.

In addition to halting the operation of Sale Slash and Purists Choice, the court order freezes their assists and appoints a temporary receiver. The FTC ultimately seeks to recover funds from the companies that would be used to provide refunds to consumers who were duped into purchasing the supposed weight-loss supplements.

FTC Halts Deceptive Marketing of Bogus Weight-Loss Products [Federal Trade Commission]

http://consumerist.com/2015/05/04/ft...loss-products/

FCC Commissioner: Feds May Come for Drudge

By Rudy Takala | May 4, 2015 | 1:18 PM EDT

(CNSNews.com) – Federal Communications Commission (FCC) member Ajit Pai said over the weekend that he foresees a future in which federal regulators will seek to regulate websites based on political content, using the power of the FCC or Federal Elections Commission (FEC). He also revealed that his opposition to “net neutrality” regulations had resulted in personal harassment and threats to his family.

Speaking on a panel at the annual “Right Online” conference in Washington, D.C., on Saturday, Pai told audience members, “I can tell you it has not been an easy couple of months personally. My address has been publicly released. My wife’s name, my kids’ names, my kids’ birthdays, my phone number, all kinds of threats [have come] online.”

Pai, one of two Republicans on the five-member FCC, has been an outspoken critic of net neutrality regulations passed by the agency on Feb. 6. The rules, which are set to take effect on June 12, reclassify Internet providers as utilities and command them not to block or “throttle” online traffic.

However, Pai said it was only the beginning. In the future, he said, “I could easily see this migrating over to the direction of content…

What you’re seeing now is an impulse not just to regulate the roads over which traffic goes, but the traffic itself.”

Continuing, he said, “It is conceivable to me to see the government saying, ‘We think the Drudge Report is having a disproportionate effect on our political discourse. He doesn’t have to file anything with the FEC. The FCC doesn’t have the ability to regulate anything he says, and we want to start tamping down on websites like that.’”

In February, Pai co-authored an editorial with former FEC Chairman Lee Goodman that warned of efforts by those agencies to regulate content online.

“Is it unthinkable that some government agency would say the marketplace of ideas is too fraught with dissonance? That everything from the Drudge Report to Fox News… is playing unfairly in online political speech sandbox? I don’t think so,” Pai said.

“The First Amendment means not just the cold parchment that’s in the Constitution. It’s an ongoing cultural commitment, and I sense that among a substantial number of Americans and a disturbing number of regulators here in Washington that online speech is [considered] a dangerous brave new world that needs to be regulated,” he concluded.

‘Billions and Billions’ to Subsidize Internet Service

In comments to CNSNews.com, Pai also talked about the FCC’s finances, the imposition of taxes on Internet usage, and subsidies for Internet service.

The reclassification of Internet providers as utilities allows the FCC to impose what is known as a “Universal Service Fund” (USF) tax on their revenue. The USF has grown exponentially in recent years, and presently stands at $12 billion annually – so large that the FCC has requested it be allowed to transfer $25 million of the money to its own budget to “administer” the fund. As a result, some in Congress have proposed limiting the size of the USF to $9 billion.

Pai did not specify where he believed the cap should stand, but he said the recent growth of the fund necessitated a limit going forward.

“I think it should be lower than what a majority of the FCC wants it to be… Whatever it is, there has to be a cap. What we’ve found is that USF funding has exploded over the past couple of years so that the USF tax is 67 percent higher than it was in 2009,” he said.

Pai said that proposals to expand certain programs funded by the USF could cost billions. “We should stop making promises in terms of expanding the Lifeline program, expanding the E-Rate program that need to be paid for. Otherwise that $9 billion cap is going to be insufficient.”

Lifeline, commonly known as the “Obama Phone” program, subsidizes phone usage for low-income individuals. E-Rate subsidizes broadband access for schools and libraries.

Continuing, Pai said, “Broadband service is a lot more expensive than phone service. Right now, the Lifeline phone subsidy is only $9.95. Imagine how expensive it’s going to have to be to really subsidize people’s broadband service.

“Secondly, people are a lot more interested in broadband than in traditional phone service these days. For those two reasons, I think the price could be exorbitant – billions and billions of dollars,” he said.

CNSNews.com also asked Pai to describe his position on the budget request submitted by the FCC to Congress this year.

“We should deny funding for some of the things the FCC wants to spend money on. Any funds, for example, to enforce these net neutrality regulations, [and] this shift of $25 million from the Universal Service Fund to the FCC itself in order to pursue its own policy priorities – I think we need to do more with less. I don’t think we’re doing that by asking for a much higher budget,” Pai said.

Pai concluded by saying the FCC was attempting to do less with more.

“If you look at how busy we actually are, we were much busier in 1996 in the wake of the ‘96 Telecomm Act. At that point, in today’s dollars, we had a budget of $277 million. Now the FCC is asking for almost $400 million even though we’re not as busy as we were then.

I think it’s safe to say we could do with what we’ve got now if not less,” he said.

http://cnsnews.com/news/article/rudy...ay-come-drudge

"Rachel from Cardholder Services" pays up

Checks are in the mail to consumers who fell prey to the scheme

By Truman Lewis
Email Truman Lewis Phone: 866-773-0221

(c) Carsten Reisinger - Fotolia

The Federal Trade Commission is mailing 16,590 refund checks totaling more than $700,000 this week to consumers who lost money to a “Rachel from Cardholder Services” scheme that allegedly promised to reduce the interest rate on consumers’ credit cards for an up-front fee. Each check will be for $42.95.The FTC has also gone after "Rachel" and friends for allegedly making illegal robocalls to consumers.

“At the FTC, Rachel from Cardholder Services is public enemy number one,” said then-FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz in November 2012 “We’re cracking down on illegal robocalls by bringing law enforcement actions and pursuing technical solutions to the problem.”

The refunds are being made from funds collected through a November 2013 settlement with six corporate defendants, including ELH Consulting d/b/a Proactive Planning Solutions, and Purchase Power Solutions, LLC and a June 2013 settlement with four other defendants, which include Key Tech Solutions, LLC, d/b/a Key One Solutions, and 3Point14 LLC, d/b/a Elite Planning Group.

Analytics, the redress administrator for this matter, will mail refund checks to eligible consumers this week. The checks must be cashed within 60 days of the date they are issued or they will become void.

Recipients should note that the FTC never requires consumers to pay money or provide information before redress checks can be cashed.

Robocalls

In 2012, the FTC reported receiving more than 200,000 complaints each month about telemarketing robocalls, including calls from “Rachel” that pitch consumers with a supposedly easy way to save money by reducing their credit card interest rates. After collecting an up-front fee, however, the FTC said the companies do little if anything to fulfill their promises.

The FTC alleged in the robocall cases that the defendants place automated calls to consumers, typically with a prerecorded message from “Rachel” or someone else from “Cardholder Services.”

The calls purport to have an “important message” regarding an opportunity to reduce high credit card interest rates. Consumers are urged to “press 1” to connect with a live representative, or “press 2” to discontinue getting such calls. Consumers who press 1 are connected to live telemarketers.

According to the FTC, consumers who reach a live telemarketer are then pitched allegedly deceptive offers to have their credit card interest rates substantially reduced, sometimes to as low as 6.9 or even zero percent.

Most consumers have no way to screen the calls using Caller ID, as the incoming number allegedly is often “spoofed,” or displayed as a false number. In many cases, the name displayed on the Caller ID is so generic, such as “Card Services,” that it provides little information about who is calling.

http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news/...up-011615.html

YouTube: YouTube and other video-sharing sites are generally not considered reliable sources of real news because anyone can create or manipulate a video clip and upload without editorial oversight, just as with a self-published website . . .

http://www.alipac.us/f19/todays-inte...ublish-272255/

http://www.alipac.us/f9/operation-ki...e-12-a-319210/

Will FOX NEWS be shut down now?

1. Fox reports police shooting in Baltimore, then retracts: 'Nobody has been shot'

ALL Mainstreem Corp. Teleprompter Media could be SHUT DOWN as "FAKE". "What the definition of FAKE is"


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fLSwvZd17Qw

I get my Teleprompter Information from FOX because [ Yell st them the least, but Appellate Court has Ruled that the Media Corps. Can Legally Lie to us, and with this June 12 Operation Kill Drudge "Utility" CENSORSHIP BS, they(OUR PAID PUBIC SERVANTS) are trying to LIMIT OUR ABILITY TO FIND THE TRUTH. "Corporations are People"

http://www.metafilter.com/24120/Appe...an-Legally-Lie