They touted their ability to turn inventors' ideas into profitable products. But fewer than 1 percent of the customers who invested in their services got royalties from their patents that amounted to more than they paid the promoters.

What we're looking for is to have small businesses apply standards that are reasonable in light of the information that they're storing. There's no business around that would leave a stack of money on a table, for people to just walk in and take. What we're really saying is that information about consumers, about your customers, is the new currency.

These defendants intentionally used personal messages as a cover-up for commercial messages. Deceptive subject lines and headers not only violate the CAN-SPAM Act, but also consumer trust.

Charging consumers for bogus collect calls is stealing. The Federal Trade Commission will not tolerate crooks who cram unauthorized charges onto phone bills.

A recent surf [of the Internet] showed some sites offering these services were registered to foreign addresses.

More than half were no longer advertising the sale of these records.