‘But wait, there’s more’. . . FTC slams home scam

A judge has awarded the Federal Trade Commission $478 million in a judgment against three marketers of real estate informercials that were accused of defrauding nearly a million consumers.

The judgment is the largest judgment ever obtained by the FTC.

The FTC had claimed the marketers duped consumers with get-rich-quick real estate claims. Almost all of the buyers of the $39.95 products from the infomercials lost money, according to the FTC. The products included “John Beck’s Free & Clear Real Estate System,” which boasted that it could show you how to purchase homes for “pennies on the dollar” during government sales.

“This huge judgment serves notice to anyone thinking of using phony get-rich-quick schemes to defraud consumers,” said Jeffrey Klurfeld, director of the western region of the FTC, in a statement.

The FTC has pursued several cases against marketers in recent months in aiming to crackdown on scams that target financially distressed consumers.