Deceptive junk e-mail is the latest target for federal regulators seeking to purge the Internet of fraud. The Federal Trade Commission will announce in the next couple of weeks its first effort to prosecute con artists who specifically use e-mail spam to dupe consumers, said Howard Beales, the agency’s director of consumer protection. Many scams sent by e-mail involve business opportunities that promise huge earnings but provide few details and often turn out to be illegal pyramid schemes.
Americans cut back on their spending a bit in December as free-financing offers for cars and other incentives began to wane. But incomes rose for the first time in four months, putting consumers, the lifeblood of the economy, in a better position to spend in the months ahead, economists said. The Commerce Department reported Thursday that consumer spending dropped by 0.2 percent in December. At the same time, Americans’ incomes, which include wages, interest and government benefits, rose by a solid 0.4 percent.
European regulators on Thursday cleared the $23.7 billion merger of Hewlett-Packard Co. and Compaq Computer Corp., saying the planned marriage of rival U.S. computer makers does not raise competition concerns in Europe. A U.S. review of the merger is still under way.
Microsoft Corp. is paying about $10 million to reimburse the legal bills of nine states that have settled the antitrust case against the software giant, according to interviews with state representatives. Other states that opted to continue pursuing the case rather than settle will have to wait for reimbursement until they end their effort to win more stringent penalties against Microsoft. Under federal law, a company found liable for antitrust violations, such as Microsoft, has to reimburse taxpayers for the cost of the prosecution.
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