[{"source":"FTC USA Business Blog Posts","url":"https://www.ftc.gov/business-guidance/blog/2018/08/first-consumer-review-fairness-case-takes-promoters-big-bucks-amazon-claim","titre":"First Consumer Review Fairness case takes on promoter’s “big bucks on Amazon” claim","pubDate":"Tue, 06 Oct 2026 08:06:23 +0200","id":3199075,"description":"First Consumer Review Fairness case takes on promoter’s “big bucks on Amazon” claim lfair August 6, 2018 | 11:11AM First Consumer Review Fairness case takes on promoter’s “big bucks on Amazon” claim By Lesley Fair T he marketers behind a purported money-making promotion called Sellers Playbook appear to have skipped the chapter about complying with federal and state consumer protection laws. That’s the allegation in a complaint filed by the FTC and the Minnesota Attorney General . In addition, it’s the FTC’s first case charg ing violations of the Consumer Review Fairness Act. The roots of the allegations go back to another venture sued by the FTC earlier this year: FBA Stores, also known as Amazing Wealth System and Amazon Wealth Systems. The defendants in that case ran online ads and in-person workshops that claimed to reveal the secret s of making major money on Amazon. But few, if any, of the consumers who forked over thousands of dollars and implemented their “plug-and-play systems” earn ed the kind of cash the defendants claimed. Which brings us to Sellers Playbook, Exposure Marketing, Jessie Conners Tieva, and Matthew Tieva – Minnesota-based defendants charged with pitching the same kind of “secrets” to making big bucks on Amazon . According to the just-filed lawsuit , the striking similarities should come as no surprise. That ’s because defendant Jessie Tieva was a regular speaker at Amazing Wealth Systems’ workshops. How successful was she in getting consumers to sign up? The complaint charges that Ms. Tieva and her team generated more than $3.4 million in sales for Amazing Wealth Systems. And let’s be clear: We’re not talking about $3.4 million in sales by consumers who successfully implemented the system. We mean $3.4 million that consumers shelled out to the operators of Amazing Wealth Systems for which Tieva was paid a handsome commission. The complaint alleges that the new Sellers Playbook venture is, in effect, a copycat of the now-defunct Amazing Wealth Systems operation. The earning claims certainly have a familiar ring to them. Here’s how Sellers Playbook touted their “opportunity”: “Holy cow, guys. That’s when you start seeing the returns of what we want you to have, $20,000 a month,” “Potential Net Profit: $1,287,463.38,” “Starting with $1000...1 year later over $210,000,” and “How many of you would like to learn how to turn a $5- to $10,000 investment into a $25- to a $1.2 million return with your investment? Yeah. And you’re going to learn those strategies before you leave here today. There are a few other things Amazon Wealth Systems and Sellers Playbook have in common: 1) Neither company has any affiliation with Amazon; and 2) Both companies charged consumers hundreds of dollars – or even hefty five-figure fees – to sign up. Of course, few consumers make the kind of earnings the defendants claimed. According to the complaint, many of the webpages promoting Sellers Playbook contained an inconspicuous earnings disclaimer in grey near the bottom of the page. What’s more, at a live event, the defendants briefly displayed this slide, which one of the presenters downplayed with this statement: “That’s why they have us do this again. It makes the lawyers happy, disclaimers. But you got to do your part. Money’s not going to fall from the sky. But as long as you do a part, it’s going to happen.” T he complaint challenges the defendants’ earning claims as false or unsubstantiated under FTC law and the Minnesota Prevention of Consumer Fraud Act. What’s more, the lawsuit alleges multiple violations of the FTC’s Business Opportunity Rule . The FTC and the AG also charge that provisions in the defendants’ form contracts try to restrict consumers’ ability to post reviews of their products, services, or conduct , in violation of the Consumer Review Fairness"},{"url":"https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2026/06/ftc-data-show-people-reported-losing-3-point-5-billion-imposter-scams-2025","source":"Federal Trade Commission - Protecting America's Consumers","pubDate":"Tue, 16 Jun 2026 08:09:40 +0200","id":2959787,"titre":"FTC Data Show People Reported Losing $3.5 Billion to Imposter Scams in 2025","description":"New data from the Federal Trade Commission reveal that people reported losing a staggering $3.5 billion to imposter scams in 2025, with reported losses increasing nearly three times since 2020. FTC data also show that people reported imposter scams more than any other fraud category in 2025—nearly one in three fraud reports were about imposter scams. These scams lured consumers through text, phone, email, social media, search engine results and other means. Some of the costliest impersonation scams start with a fake security alert, often from a bank. People are convinced to move money to “protect” it, with their losses often limited only by their available funds. Last year, people reported losing nearly $1 billion to business impersonators with the highest reported losses to bank impersonators—and about $920 million to government impersonators, up from $866 million and $789 million respectively in 2024. The FTC has seen a striking increase in reported fraud losses to all types of fraud—about $16 billion was reported lost in 2025, the highest on record and an increase of about 25% compared to the 2024 figure. “Consumers derive enormous benefits from competitive markets built on truthful information. But fraud undermines that foundation, impeding the market process and preventing markets from operating efficiently,” said Christopher Mufarrige, Director of the Bureau of Consumer Protection. “The FTC will use every tool available to combat one of the most pernicious forms of fraud—government and business impersonation—and to protect the integrity of the digital economy.” The data underscore the importance of the FTC’s work with the  Elder Justice Coordinating Council (EJCC) , which is working to help raise awareness of imposter scams and other scams impacting older adults as well as other consumers. This year, the FTC, along with the Department of Justice, Department of Health and Human Services and members of the EJCC, is leading the Never Ever campaign, a public-private coordinated consumer education effort to raise awareness of government and business imposter scams. In addition to the federal agency members of the EJCC , the campaign also includes private sector representatives such as the American Bankers Association, USTelecom, Google and Microsoft. To help the public spot imposter scams, EJCC members launched the Never Ever campaign, which is aimed at promoting messaging on the key actions that government and businesses will Never Ever take. The Never Ever campaign will run from June 15 to June 26, in conjunction with World Elder Abuse Awareness Day. This first-of-its-kind public-private partnership includes participants from a wide range of organizations and is aimed at directing consumers to a website that includes information and resources to help them avoid imposter scams and what to do if they spot one. Enforcement Actions To help combat impersonation scams, the FTC in 2024 finalized the Impersonation Rule. The Rule gives the agency stronger tools to combat and deter scammers who impersonate government agencies and businesses, enabling the FTC to file federal court cases seeking to get money back to injured consumers and civil penalties against rule violators. Since then, the FTC has vigorously enforced the rule and brought a dozen enforcement actions that have resulted in halting imposter schemes and obtained over $70 million in redress for consumers. In 2025, the FTC brought law enforcement actions under the Impersonation Rule against:  American Tax Service (IRS imposter scheme);  MediaAlpha (government imposter scheme to sell health insurance);  Click Profit (business imposter money making scam);  Blackstone Legal (phantom debt business imposter scheme) and  Accelerated Debt Settlement (government and business imposter scheme that targeted older adults for debt relief). More recently, the  FTC filed a complaint against Innovative Partners in April 2026 , alleging the operators"},{"source":"ANJ","url":"https://anj.fr/uefa-european-football-championship-and-sports-betting-french-gambling-authority-anj","titre":"UEFA European Football Championship and sports betting: the French Gambling Authority (ANJ) gathers operators and announces a dynamic and structuring action plan","id":2847428,"pubDate":"Sat, 25 Apr 2026 08:02:05 +0200","description":"UEFA European Football Championship and sports betting: the French Gambling Authority (ANJ) gathers operators and announces a dynamic and structuring action plan admin lun 13/09/2021 - 16:45 On 20 July 2021, the French Gambling Authority (ANJ) gathered sports betting’s operators in order to make the overview of the European Football Championship that has been scarred by some abuses. Resulting from a constructive exchange, these operators have agreed on the necessity to proceed at a rebalancing of their practices in order to preserve the recreational model of the French gambling market. As such, the ANJ introduced an action plan that seeks to reinforce operators’ compliance, to adapt and complete existing tools and, where required, to use sanctioning procedures. English Questionable practices highlighted during the European Football Championship UEFA European Football Championship 2021 confirmed the growing place of sports bets in France with EUR 434 million of online stakes. The French team matches have aroused a strong popularity by totalling EUR 88 million of online bets, which means an average of EUR 22 million per match. This competition has underlined the existence of questionable practices around sports betting, such as the media hype, the targeting of young people or the excessive stimulation of the game. For the first time, the public debate has seized this very subject and has relayed serious concerns coming from various circles. According to a Harris Interactive inquiry* conducted for the ANJ during the European Football Championship, more than half of those who had seen sports betting ads feel that they are too many of them and close to eight out of ten French people who had seen these ads consider that they can contain a risk of addiction. *Inquiry conducted by Harris Interactive online from the 6 to the 8 July 2021 for the ANJ with a cross section of 1038 French population aged over 18 years old. The ANJ has brought gambling operators together in order to learn from the European Football Championship After having drew the attention of operators on several critical points since June, the ANJ has gathered them on the 20 July in order to do the review of the European Football Championship and to address them the following messages: A yellow line has been crossed in terms of advertising pressure during this competition, which leads to question the model of regulation in place for the past 10 years; it is important to drastically and immediately reduce the sports betting’s advertising pressure. The commercial communications targeting young adults and keeping the illusion of easy money are particularly problematic. As a result of these discussions, which took place in a constructive atmosphere, gambling operators have decided that they collectively share the concerns expressed by the regulator and are prepared to work alongside it in order to propose some improvements and to limit these commercial communications. The ANJ establish an action plan for games offer to remain recreational and well-balanced Given the shared objective of recovery practices between regulator and operators, the ANJ has announced the launch of 5 projects to fight the observed abuses and to clarify or complete the legal framework. These projects should be over by the end of the year.   Regarding advertisement: The ANJ"},{"url":"http://anj.fr/uefa-european-football-championship-and-sports-betting-french-gambling-authority-anj","source":"ANJ","id":719780,"pubDate":"Sun, 28 May 2023 19:23:47 +0200","titre":"UEFA European Football Championship and sports betting: the French Gambling Authority (ANJ) gathers operators and announces a dynamic and structuring action plan","description":"UEFA European Football Championship and sports betting: the French Gambling Authority (ANJ) gathers operators and announces a dynamic and structuring action plan admin lun 13/09/2021 - 16:45 On 20 July 2021, the French Gambling Authority (ANJ) gathered sports betting’s operators in order to make the overview of the European Football Championship that has been scarred by some abuses. Resulting from a constructive exchange, these operators have agreed on the necessity to proceed at a rebalancing of their practices in order to preserve the recreational model of the French gambling market. As such, the ANJ introduced an action plan that seeks to reinforce operators’ compliance, to adapt and complete existing tools and, where required, to use sanctioning procedures. English Questionable practices highlighted during the European Football Championship UEFA European Football Championship 2021 confirmed the growing place of sports bets in France with EUR 434 million of online stakes. The French team matches have aroused a strong popularity by totalling EUR 88 million of online bets, which means an average of EUR 22 million per match. This competition has underlined the existence of questionable practices around sports betting, such as the media hype, the targeting of young people or the excessive stimulation of the game. For the first time, the public debate has seized this very subject and has relayed serious concerns coming from various circles. According to a Harris Interactive inquiry* conducted for the ANJ during the European Football Championship, more than half of those who had seen sports betting ads feel that they are too many of them and close to eight out of ten French people who had seen these ads consider that they can contain a risk of addiction. *Inquiry conducted by Harris Interactive online from the 6 to the 8 July 2021 for the ANJ with a cross section of 1038 French population aged over 18 years old. The ANJ has brought gambling operators together in order to learn from the European Football Championship After having drew the attention of operators on several critical points since June, the ANJ has gathered them on the 20 July in order to do the review of the European Football Championship and to address them the following messages: A yellow line has been crossed in terms of advertising pressure during this competition, which leads to question the model of regulation in place for the past 10 years; it is important to drastically and immediately reduce the sports betting’s advertising pressure. The commercial communications targeting young adults and keeping the illusion of easy money are particularly problematic. As a result of these discussions, which took place in a constructive atmosphere, gambling operators have decided that they collectively share the concerns expressed by the regulator and are prepared to work alongside it in order to propose some improvements and to limit these commercial communications. The ANJ establish an action plan for games offer to remain recreational and well-balanced Given the shared objective of recovery practices between regulator and operators, the ANJ has announced the launch of 5 projects to fight the observed abuses and to clarify or complete the legal framework. These projects should be over by the end of the year. Regarding advertisement: The ANJ has asked operators for a mid-term review of implementation of their promotional strategies as approved by the ANJ’s Board in January 2021 and reserves the right, after examination of these reviews, to initiate sanctions procedures in the event of noncompliance. The ANJ will launch a consultation of stakeholders on advertising in September. This will allow the ANJ to address recommendations to these stakeholders, and if necessary, to propose new tools of intervention. A partnership is initiated with the ARPP (Self-Regulatory Body of Advertising Professionals) in order to decline regulatory restrictions into concrete recommendations for operators. The objective is to issue precise and operational"}]