Mass Marketing Stings Internet Users

Millions of consumers and businesses around the world are being fleeced of tens of billions of dollars by mass marketing frauds, Australian Competition and Consumer Commission deputy chair Peter Kell said at the launch the Global Day of Action – Think Fraud campaign.

Millions of consumers and businesses around the world are being fleeced of tens of billions of dollars by mass marketing frauds, Australian Competition and Consumer Commission deputy chair Peter Kell said at the launch the Global Day of Action – Think Fraud campaign.

The campaign is part of a world-wide effort by the International Mass Marketing Fraud Working Group to combat advance fee fraud.
“Mass marketed fraud uses mass-communications media – including the internet, mass mailings and telephones – to contact, solicit, and obtain money, property, or other items of value from multiple victims in one or more jurisdictions,” Kell said.”Consumers are tricked into providing smaller amounts of money upfront in order to obtain larger amounts later in the form of prizes or a long lost inheritance. These smaller amounts are usually expenses such as government taxes and/or legal fees.”

Mass marketing fraud is the major type of consumer fraud reported to the ACCC, representing 54 per cent of scam reports made to the agency in 2009. The ACCC received more than 20,000 scam reports in 2009. This represents an increase of about 16 per cent when compared with 2008.