Sic the Law on Crooked Spammers

This scam went nationwide by e-mail; maybe it came to your computer: You’re told the merchandise you ordered is en route and payment (several hundred dollars) will be automatically charged to your credit card.

But if you don’t want the merchandise, just call this phone number to cancel.

The scammers had no way of hitting on your credit card: Once you learned you’ve been charged a fee for the callback, you know you’ve been had.

There’s a new dirty word for such a scam. It’s called Spam.

Not all spammers are crooked--Spam is the name computer users have given to unsolicited junk e-mail. But enough are deceptive that it’s keeping a team of federal regulators busy trying to track them down. More than 1,000 spammers have been told in recent months they’re being monitored as possible frauds.

Nine months ago, the Federal Trade Commission opened up an e-mail line ([email protected]) for consumers to file complaints about spammers.

“We did nothing to spread the word it was available, yet we’ve already gotten more than 1 million messages,” said FTC spokeswoman Claudia Bourne Farrell.

Here’s why so many scammers succeed: That credit card scam? It only costs you $2 to $10, if you keep the telephone call short, to try to stop this phony order. Most people, even if angry, won’t sue over such a minor amount.

But if the scammers get, let’s say 80,000 return calls--which these folks did--that puts their profit into six figures.

Unfortunately for this group, enough people e-mailed complaints to the FTC that it asked the U.S. Bureau of Consumer Protection to take a closer look. The bureau tracked down the phone number to the tiny island of Dominica in the West Indies. A court order has since frozen the group’s assets and stopped its business.

“We look for patterns among the complaints,” said John Singer, a team leader on that investigation. “Some situations just stand out as illegitimate.”

Many scammers are using e-mail instead of the post office because it eliminates costly overhead. We get fooled because they don’t always sound like scams. Said Singer: “A lot of them know they are illegal, but they believe they have cloaked themselves in enough legitimacy to get away with it.”

You can always hit “delete” on your computer, of course. But Internet consumer groups say we shouldn’t have to spend our time getting rid of this clutter. Here are some things you can do to fight back:

Learn more about spammers by turning to the Web site of the Coalition Against Unsolicited Commercial E-Mails (www.cauce.org.)

Make your complaint known to a coalition of consumer groups that have formed a Web site (www.spamrecycle.com) to hear from you.

But the best bet: Take your complaint directly to the FTC. Either by phone ([202] FTC-HELP) or by mail (600 Pennsylvania Ave., Washington, D.C. 20580) or by Web site (www.ftc.gov.)

Here’s the best tip I picked up: Junk e-mailers say you should just message them if you want to be removed from their mailing list. Never ever respond. The experts say this only lets a scammer know that your e-mail address is legitimate. You will wind up with even more unsolicited e-mails.

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Jerry Hicks can be reached by calling (714) 564-1049 or e-mail to [email protected]