There's a modest storefront at 1800 Drew St. that might give the casual observer the impression the business is there to sell T-shirts. There are golf and T-shirts inside, and a sign out front reads: "USA Financial Retail Store." ...more

May 21, 2008

CLEARWATER - The Federal Trade Commission today announced the results of Operation Tele-Phoney, which the agency described as the largest telemarketing investigation in history. The effort involved cooperation with Canada, federal authorities involved with the investigation said at a webcast press conference in Washington this morning. ...more

May 20, 2008

CLEARWATER - The Federal Trade Commission on Tuesday will announce the results of "Operation Tele-Phoney," which is described by the agency as the largest telemarketing investigation in history. ...more

May 19, 2008

Rushing to visit her mother undergoing surgery in South Carolina, Sophia Teague stuffed her bill payments into her mailbox and lifted the flag to signal the mail carrier. ...more

February 17, 2008

Financial crimes such as identity theft and check fraud increased last year 39 percent in Tampa and 24 percent in Hillsborough County, statistics show. ...more

February 14, 2008

Americans reported 20 percent more cases of consumer fraud in 2007 than the year before, with nearly a third of complaints related to identity theft, the government said Wednesday. ...more

February 14, 2008

Pete Giancola was looking for a bass boat for his son, so he went looking on eBay, where he found one listed for a good price. ...more

January 28, 2008

A U.S. magistrate is recommending that a Largo-based telemarketing company that was raided and shut down by federal officials in July be allowed to resume operations, albeit in slimmed-down form and under a strict court-ordered receivership. ...more

December 28, 2007

With U.S. antitrust clearance for its DoubleClick purchase, Google's focus now turns to European regulators, who are expected to be more critical of the top search engine linking up with a market leader in online advertising. ...more

December 21, 2007

On the same day they cleared Google's purchase of online advertiser DoubleClick, federal regulators said industry needs to be more transparent about how consumers' Web-surfing habits are tracked. ...more

December 21, 2007