For Release: October 3, 2001 FTC
Announces Public Workshop on Office Supply Fraud
The Federal Trade Commission will hold a one-day public
workshop at its Washington, D.C. headquarters on November 8, 2001, to discuss office and
cleaning supply fraud. The workshop will give FTC staff, states, industry and other
interested parties an opportunity to discuss ways to combat office supply fraud more
effectively. A notice announcing the workshop will be published in the Federal Register
shortly.
"Despite years of law enforcement sweeps and business
education efforts, office supply fraud continues to victimize small businesses, nonprofit
organizations and large corporations," said J. Howard Beales, Director of the FTC's
Bureau of Consumer Protection. "With industry estimates that office supply fraud
costs victims approximately $200 million a year, the workshop will serve as a
brainstorming session to discuss what more can be done to stop this fraud - through law
enforcement, consumer education, and industry self-help."
The workshop is intended to facilitate a discussion among
office and cleaning supply industry associations and their members, business groups and
advocates, law enforcement authorities, and small business representatives. The discussion
will focus on how legitimate and fraudulent companies differ in their marketing
techniques, the current business practices of office and cleaning supply telemarketers,
the use of fulfillment companies, the prevalence of office and cleaning suppliers who
telemarket, and the ways small businesses and nonprofit organizations buy supplies. Some
of the topics to be addressed at the workshop include:
- How the frauds work;
- Federal and state law enforcement initiatives;
- Business education efforts;
- Principal sales methods of industry members;
- The use of fulfillment houses;
- Principal buying patterns of businesses and organizations;
- Impact of the Telemarketing Sales Rule on industry marketing
methods; and
- Current frauds.
The workshop will be open to the general public. It will be
held on Novenber 8, 2001, at the main FTC building, 600 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W.,
Washington, D.C. 20580, in Room 432, from 8:15 a.m. until 5:00 p.m.
The Commission vote to publish the Federal Register notice
announcing the public workshop was 5-0. |