FTC Ramps Up COVID-19 Activity After Improving Its Data Security Enforcement Orders

With the spread of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19), cybersecurity criminals and scammers are ramping up their efforts to target vulnerable employers and workforces. The FTC announced today that since January they have received more than 7,800 fraud complaints from consumers related to the COVID-19 pandemic. But the FTC isn't slowing down either. Even with the FTC having to change its own procedures due to COVID-19, the FTC has been publishing guidance on COVID-19 scams and also sending out warning letters to sellers of false treatments.

This spate of new consumer protection threats from COVID-19 scams comes at critical time after the FTC recently revised its enforcement order policies. In early January, before COVID-19 had fully spread to the United States, Director of the Federal Trade Commission ("FTC") Bureau of Consumer Protection, Andrew Smith, published a blog post detailing how the FTC has been working to improve the clarity of FTC orders in data