Australia’s consumer watchdog on Tuesday launched a three-day crackdown aimed at tackling bogus websites designed to swindle internet users, as part of an international campaign to highlight and shut down such scams.
Along with consumer protection agencies from 24 countries, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission says it’s targeting sites that tout bogus free offers and get-rich-quick and work-at-home schemes that often have large start-up fees, added costs and ”grossly exaggerated earning potential”.
”The internet is prime territory for scammers around the globe who seek to take advantage of international boundaries to avoid detection,” commission Chairman Graeme Samuel said.
The campaign is being conducted under the banner of the International Consumer Protection and Enforcement Network, which is made up of consumer protection authorities from 31 countries.
But one industry expert said the effort was a waste of time.
”Such an exercise feels like it’s completely futile,” said Sigi Goode, an internet expert at the Australian National University.
”One of the problems the ACCC is facing is the ease with which such websites can be removed or moved and then can pop up again.”
Goode said it may be better to work on controlling junk e-mail, ”because I think you would see a lot of these types of sites disappear if you could do that.”
The ”sweeps” of the Internet started in 1999, and this year’s will be the sixth, commission Deputy Chair Louise Sylvan said.
”The point is to clean it up, to send a strong message that we want consumers to be safe shopping on the net and that we’re out there watching,” said Sylvan.
She said the process involved entering specific terms into search engines, then examining the thousands of sites that match the criteria.
”We immediately get in touch (with the Web site’s owners) and if there’s no cooperation we will proceed to court to shut them down or seek refunds for customers,” Sylvan said. ”Some sites just disappear; sometimes the site becomes part of another jurisdiction and we contact them.”
Any business found to be operating a scam site will be prosecuted under the misleading conduct laws of its country of origin, Sylvan said. In Australia, offenders can be fined, but will not receive jail sentences.
The previous sweeps — some of which focused on travel and health — have had ”varied success,” Sylvan said.
In 2002, there were 1 400 specific sites on health identified worldwide as suspicious,” she said. ”Some 209 are still under investigation, but we also forced 74 to out of court settlements.”
Sylvan said the network has fostered close cooperation between countries to attack deceptive online marketing practices.
The participating nations are Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Japan, Korea, Latvia, Mexico, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovak Republic, Sweden, Switzerland, United States, and United Kingdom. – Sapa-AP