FTC Cracking down on "review bloggers"

[Dan C. Rinnert]

Originally Posted by nichedemon

A blog comment is an opinion- paid or unpaid. Consumers need to take responsibility for their decisions rather than blame everybody else for their stupid decisions. Didn't we all land up in the mortgage crisis and now blame the mortgage companies, federal Reserve, Uncle Jim flipper down the street et al!?

The problem is that politicians pander to the people that refuse to accept personal responsibility for anything that happens in their lives. There are plenty of people that will pat themselves on the back and tell the world how brilliant they are when they make a good decision, but when they back bad decisions, it's someone else's fault.

Do people legitimately get scammed? Yes. But, based on my experience, most people that complain about being "scammed" weren't really scammed; they were victims of their own greed or did not carefully read the offer or fine print, if they read any of it at all.

[Gabe77]

Originally Posted by sbucciarel

I think it's ridiculous that they think they can monitor a massive amount of blogs and I think the comparison between the sales clerk is ridiculous. Many sales clerks work on commission and they do not divulge to you that the product they are pushing gives them a higher commission than the lower priced products they are pushing. What is the difference? There is none.

I agree. Both are paid to push the product regardless if it's good or not. Or whether they've tested the products themselves or not. It's all about the money.

[AllanWM]

Originally Posted by Dan C. Rinnert

The problem is that politicians pander to the people that refuse to accept personal responsibility for anything that happens in their lives. There are plenty of people that will pat themselves on the back and tell the world how brilliant they are when they make a good decision, but when they back bad decisions, it's someone else's fault.

Do people legitimately get scammed? Yes. But, based on my experience, most people that complain about being "scammed" weren't really scammed; they were victims of their own greed or did not carefully read the offer or fine print, if they read any of it at all.

Well stated and I agree, too many folks not taking responsibility for their actions and decisions and most certainly the consequences.

[greenovni]

Stupid Americans... This is what I actually heard a minority store owner say after a lady walked in the store complaining about being 'scammed' because what she bought did not show any improvement for what she used it for.

What did she buy? One of those cell phone internal antenna booster stickers

What did she use it for? She stuck it on the WINDSHIELD of her car because the reception on her radio was 'low'.

The problem here in America is that people do not use common sense & feel like they are owed the world (mortgage crisis comes to mind), then, once they realized how bad they f**ked up, they start pointing fingers and placing the blame everywhere else except where it belongs... on them.

Does anyone really think that you can make $5,000 a week just by placing a link on Google?

People can't really be that stupid, can they?

I guess they can really be that stupid if the FTC has to make 'laws' to protect them.

The only questions I have about this whole dilema is:

Would I be under FTC jurisdiction if my domain name is purchased using an off shore domain registrar?

Would I be under FTC jurisdiction if I have my websites hosted in some place the FTC could not touch like Cuba / China / Venezuela / Panama / etc

(Can't think who the FTC can't touch off the top of my head)

[braver55b]

Regulation is needed to protect the public within reason to prevent a scammer's free for all. (though I wonder how the FTC is going to be able to monitor 100 million blogs)

However I do not support what I see is increasing government intrusion into our lives.

No company should be too big to fail and propped up by government, only to fail down the road.

This "cracking down" on bloggers who review products is just another attempt to impede our free market model.

[AllanWM]

Originally Posted by greenovni

The problem here in America is that people do not use common sense & feel like they are owed the world (mortgage crisis comes to mind), then, once they realized how bad they f**ked up, they start pointing fingers and placing the blame everywhere else except where it belongs... on them.

Agreed, I don't believe the lack of common sense and feeling of entitlement is confined to America though.

[brucerby]

Here is the great irony in all this:

Regulation-on-top-of-regulation, government meddling in every business at every stage of commerce, creating endless new bureaucracies, all supposedly designed to "PROTECT" Americans, ... only produces fewer self-reliant Americans.

It encourages people to not pay attention to claims made by advertisers, or realistically evaluate those claims, because if they (the consumer) get into trouble or are ripped off, the Government will take care of them.

These new rules will only foster more DEPENDENCE on government rather than INdependence. Less critical thinking will occur.

EXAMPLE: Many of the people/investors scammed by Madoff are now screaming for the government to come and recover their lost savings.

But, have you seen the returns these people were supposedly getting? They were sent statements every month showing annual gains of 17% and even more!....this in a market when stocks had dropped 40%!!!!

They were getting these statements right up to December, and NO ONE had the skeptical mind to do some investigation? ...I agree with earlier poster, most were victims of their own greed.

So now the omniscient government will protect us from our own greed - good luck.
_____
Bruce

[mikeyman120]

I just learned how to make a blog and the first thing I thought of doing was review blogs!

Mike

[Shaka]

Thank you, this is important information. However, given the limited resources of the FTC and likely coming federal budget cuts, I don’t see how they can do much in the way of expanded oversight. Frankly, some blogs I’ve read have contained misleading and inaccurate information and should be monitored more closely.

But ,given FTC limitations and the number of blogs in the blogosphere, I don’t expect much to come of this.

[Sfrew]

There are lots of FTC rules out there that websites violate every day -- and every now and then one gets slapped. Not often, but when it happens, they can grab you bank accounts, levy huge fines, and even send you to jail for some of them. If you are lucky, they will just make you refund 100% of your earnings.

The problem with the FTC, in my opinion, is that they often go after a little guy over a relatively minor misunderstanding, rather than looking for big operations that are deliberately walking along the edge.

Until they actually issue a rule, we will have to guess what they want, but there ought to be room for fair disclosure that does not totally kill sales -- such as the earnings disclaimer rule (which most websites violate).

[Kevin Koop]

While I'm not an attorney (and am not giving out legal advice) I think it highlights the need to include information in your disclaimers/TOS that you are linking to sites that you are affiliated with.

@SCK - too funny!