During my time with the Attorney General's office I noticed that most of the online business schemes originated out of Utah. I do not know why. I surmise that someone was successful with such a scheme many years ago and over time, employees left and started their own schemes.

Anyhow, the FTC has cracked down on another online business scheme. According to the FTC complaint, the scheme took $8.4 million from consumers interested in starting an online business. The perpetrators marketed business coaching services to consumers. The "services" cost thousands of dollars. As is common with this type of scheme, the perpetrators over promised results and persuaded consumers to charge thousands of dollars on their credit cards to pay for the so called services.

Consumers often tell me that the coaching services are lackluster at best. While the consumers expect that they will be taught to make thousands online with eBay and other services, the reality is that they only receive basic, mediocre advice. The consumers rarely make enough money to quit their day job. Many consumers are stuck with large credit card debts that they cannot pay off.

I agree with the FTC's recent action as I have been troubled by the fact that so many consumers lack the knowledge to protect themselves from online business schemes. Those who are not familiar with online commerce seem to be the ones that are most likely to fall for the online business scheme.