U.S. FTC Warns Stimulus Scammers Already At Work

Identity theft was the number one consumer complaint last year at the agency, for the ninth year in a row, with 313,982 complaints.

Scam artists with sophisticated Web sites, some featuring photos of President Barack Obama, are offering to help consumers cash in on the new $787 billion economic stimulus package, the Federal Trade Commission said on Wednesday.

The commission warned that some scammers ask consumers for information that lead to identity theft, the leading cause of consumer complaints to the FTC last year.

Other scammers ask for a small sum of money to help win a grant from the $787 billion stimulus measure, and use the information from the victim's credit card to make much larger fraudulent charges.

"Web sites may advertise that they can help you get money from the stimulus fund. Many use deceptive names or images of President Obama and Vice President Biden to suggest they are legitimate. They're not," said Eileen Harrington, acting director of the FTC's Bureau of Consumer Protection.

Identity theft was the number one consumer complaint last year at the agency, for the ninth year in a row, with 313,982 complaints.

The stimulus package was approved by Congress and signed into law by President Obama last month to help jump-start the flagging American economy and create an estimated 3.5 million jobs. The White House created a web site, www.recovery.gov, to track how the billions of dollars in money will be spent.