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Wisconsin consumer protection officials have had some success in nabbing tele-marketing and Internet scammers in the past year, but the fight has not be an easy one.
Sandy Chalmers, Deputy Secretary of the state Department of Agriculture, Trade, and Consumer Protection says technology has made it so easy for anyone, anywhere in the world to send out millions of calls and messages in the space of just a day, and then disappear. “It’s kind of a pop-up thing that can be very difficult to track back,” she says.
The state has been working with the Federal Trade Commission and FBI, which has made it possible to bust some of the schemes in the past year that involved bogus offers of Microsoft tech support and threatening messages claiming to be from the IRS. Chalmers says that assistance has been crucial, due to the fact that many of the scams originate overseas or across borders – beyond the jurisdiction of the state.
Calls from scammers were included in the top complaints received by DATCP during 2015.
Contributed by WIBA