The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has partnered with consumer protection authorities from four Latin American countries — Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Peru — to combat cross-border fraud.
This collaboration, marked by the signing of a Multilateral Memorandum of Understanding (MMOU), aims to enhance cooperation in the fight against fraud within and beyond the United States, the FTC said in a Friday (Sept. 29) press release.
Maria Coppola, director of the FTC’s Office of International Affairs, said in the release that the partners have a shared commitment to protect consumers from cross-border fraud, deception and illegal practices. By establishing this multilateral MOU, the FTC and its Latin American partners are sending a strong message that fraudulent activities will not be tolerated, regardless of geographical boundaries.
Additionally, this agreement serves as a blueprint for expanding cooperation throughout the region, providing a mechanism for other countries to join forces against fraud, Coppola said.
The rise of low-cost online communications has made it easier for scammers to target consumers globally, posing a significant challenge for consumer protection authorities worldwide, according to the press release.
Fraud reports against companies in the four Latin American countries involved in this agreement more than doubled from 2019 to 2022, reaching 12,869 cases, the release said. Concurrently, consumer losses skyrocketed from $39.4 million to $237.9 million during the same period.
By signing the MMOU, the FTC and consumer protection authorities in these countries have committed to cooperating in investigations related to violations of consumer protection laws, according to the press release. The agreement encourages the sharing of consumer complaints, investigative assistance, coordination of enforcement actions against cross-border violations, and participation in platforms like econsumer.gov, which allows consumers worldwide to report fraud.
The MMOU also facilitates cooperation on non-investigatory matters, such as exchanging approaches to consumer protection policy issues and engaging in staff exchanges, joint training programs and workshops, the release said.
The agreement includes a mechanism for other consumer protection authorities to join in the future, indicating the potential for further expansion of this collaborative effort, per the release.
PYMNTS Intelligence has found that financial institutions (FIs) also report that fraud attacks are becoming more commonplace. A full two-thirds of FIs have seen increases in fraud rates, and more than half said the dollar value of the fraud has risen, according to “The State of Fraud and Financial Crime in the United States,” a PYMNTS and Featurespace collaboration.
The U.S. Treasury Secretary says a new government cost-cutting effort has found $50 billion in savings.
Speaking to Fox News Tuesday (Feb. 18) evening, Scott Bessent said the work by the “Department of Government Efficiency” (DOGE), a group created by executive order last month, could ultimately lead to “several percent of GDP that we are saving.”
The secretary added that the public doesn’t “have to be concerned about any of this,” in reference to attempts by the Elon Musk-connected team to access taxpayer data, leading Democratic lawmakers to raise concerns about privacy.
At the Internal Revenue Service, Bessent said, there’s one member of the DOGE team “looking at an outdated IT system, that’s all they’re doing.”
Bessent said two people at Treasury had “read only access” to the payments systems, meaning they don’t have the ability to make any changes. “There are very strict guardrails around them,” he said.
The $50 billion figure is slightly lower than the $55 billion in savings DOGE claims to have found so far. However, a report from Bloomberg News Wednesday (Feb. 19) notes that while DOGE says it has saved $55 billion, its website accounts for just $16.6 billion.
That site also includes an error, the report added, mislabeling an $8 million contract as $8 billion, reducing the amount of the group’s itemized savings by nearly half.
DOGE’s efforts have helped bring about hundreds of thousands of government layoffs, some of which have been rescinded as departments realized they were missing crucial workers.
For example, the mass firings led to the dismissal of a team in the U.S. Department of Agriculture working on the government’s response to the avian flu. The department has said it is now trying to reverse the firings.
In another incident last week, the National Nuclear Security Administration rescinded firings for employees responsible for monitoring the nation’s nuclear stockpile, only to discover it had no way of getting in touch with said employees.
The idea for DOGE was first floated last year, with President Donald Trump announcing that Musk would lead the project. However, the administration has since said that Musk was an advisor to the White House, and not in charge of the department.
In a recent interview with PYMNTS CEO Karen Webster, Amias Gerety, a Treasury official for the Obama administration, warned of the consequences if DOGE’s efforts to access payment systems created uncertainty.
“If there’s one phrase that dominates discussions about the Treasury’s role in the nation’s finances, it’s ‘full faith and credit,’” Gerety said.
“The full faith and credit of the U.S. government should not be impeached. It’s literally in the [Constitution]. If you’re a bank, if you’re an investor, if you’re a government contractor, if you’re a retiree receiving Social Security — you have to ask, will my payments go through? That uncertainty should be felt around the world.”