They were not alone in their disappointment. N.Y. On June 13, Judge Colleen McMahon of Federal District Court in White Plains, N.Y., agreed with the FTC contention that Five Star's operation amounted to a pyramid scheme that duped most of its 8,200 members. They were also banned for life from all multilevel marketing businesses. The agency said that it had received 18,600 consumer complaints of Internet fraud in 1999, compared with fewer than 1,000 just two years before, and that accusations of online abuse now account for about one in four fraud complaints.
Con artists are quick to embrace new communications technologies.
Well-constructed Web sites give the appearance of being above board, which was what helped convince the Rogers to invest in Five Star. Bringing together 150 consumer and law enforcement organizations in 28 countries on five continents, it yielded 1,600 suspect sites. Hansen says many Net schemes are aimed at older people on fixed incomes and unsophisticated young adults. You have to wonder why something so sure-fire is urgently shared with tens of thousands of strangers. It's an old saw, but in or out of cyberspace, if it sounds too good to be true, it is.