Backgrounder

Armchair Armor: Shopping Safely From Home

February 14 - 20, 2000 has been designated National Consumer Protection Week.

National Consumer Protection Week? What’s that?

Here's the story: Last year, a group of consumer affairs colleagues met informally to figure out a way to highlight consumer protection and education efforts around the country. The group, which included representatives from federal, state and local organizations, as well as national advocacy organizations, thought National Consumer Protection Week could continue the tradition begun by the U.S. Office of Consumer Affairs, which for years had sponsored National Consumers Week.

The reason: consumer fraud is big business. Marketing and telecommunications advances in the Information Age have given everyone, even con artists, the power to boost the sophistication and reach of a sales pitch. Fraud promoters now masquerade as national firms, using telemarketing, direct mail, television and the Internet to reach consumers. Thanks to personal computers, desktop publishing software and affordable video equipment, bogus pitches look legitimate and can lure millions of consumers to take the bait. In short, fraud promoters pose a significant threat to consumers and to the economy.

Get into National Consumer Protection Week. It's easy, and it=s important. If you'd like to participate at the national level, contact the chair of the appropriate committee. For more information — and for materials to download for your own use — visit the NCPW page at www.consumer.gov/ncpw.

1. Public Education: Help prepare information for public distribution and design the NCPW web site. (Contact: Carolyn Shanoff, FTC, cshanoff@ftc.gov.)

2. Contests: Coordinate two contests: one to find the "Consumer of the Year" in recognition of achievement by a non-professional advocate and another to recognize outstanding consumer education efforts that are designed for NCPW. (Contact: Wendy Weinberg, NACAA, nacaa@erols.com.)

3. Corporate Partnerships: Encourage and coordinate participation from the corporate community. (Contact: Adrienne Oleck, AARP, aoleck@aarp.org)

4. Grassroots: Promote NCPW at the grassroots level, and help coordinate NCPW activities. (Contact: Steve Hannan, Howard County, Maryland, Office of Consumer Affairs, shannan@co.ho.md.us.)

5. Post Week Evaluation: Evaluate the success of the week, with the aim of improving it in the future. (Contact: Susan Grant, NCL, susang@nclnet.org.)

Revised: 12/18/00