Aussie watchdog eyes 140 'scam' websites

Australia's consumer watchdog is investigating 141 websites suspected of scamming the public following an international sweep of the internet conducted by consumer protection agencies yesterday.

The suspicious sites include those providing genealogy/family history services, online DNA testing, lotteries, premium mobile services and arbitrage betting providers, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission said.

If the website operators are unable to substantiate their claims they will be forced to make modifications or take the sites down altogether.

"The law is the law. When dealing with traders operating in Australia, the same basic rights apply online as they do offline," ACCC deputy chairman Peter Kell said.

The move comes after 30 government operatives in Canberra yesterday carried out a widespread sweep of the internet, searching for sites that sought to deceive shoppers, investors and researchers with scams, overhyped promises and false claims in general.

They were joined by more than 20 consumer protection agencies around the world, which examined sites based out of their respective countries.

The local operatives included staff from the ACCC, ACT Office of Fair Trading, Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy and the Treasury. They found the sites using predetermined search terms such as "anti-ageing" and "instant millionaire".

ACCC spokeswoman Lin Enright said 751 local sites were investigated yesterday and, of those, 141 had been "flagged for in-depth review".

The Communications Minister, Stephen Conroy, said trust and confidence underpinned the growth of Australia's digital economy.

"Australians should have the confidence that, when they transact online, they have the same levels of protection that they have in the offline world," he said.

The ACCC said it would not release the names of the sites being investigated until it had established there was a breach of the Trade Practices Act 1974.

But among the regulator's findings were genealogy sites advertised as Australian services despite offering only overseas family records, DNA testing sites that were "too good to be true", online lotteries with hidden terms and qualifiers and premium mobile phone services purporting to be free but containing hidden charges.

Another problem area was sites offering arbitrage betting services, the ACCC said.

They falsely claimed to make large sums of money for investors without exposing the investors to risk by placing multiple bets on each outcome with different betting companies.

Results from the sweeps by the overseas agencies were still coming in and final figures were not yet available, Enright said.

This month the ACCC succeeded in shutting down the Designer Brand Outlet website, which promised discount designer clothes but delivered fakes or no products at all.