FTC Takes Action Against Work-at-Home Scams

July 10, 2009 — -- The Federal Trade Commission is taking action against an alleged bogus online work-at-home offer called ProcessFromHome, which was profiled by "20/20" this past March.

On July 1, 2009, the FTC filed a complaint in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California Southern Division, citing that "the defendants misrepresented that consumers would be hired as rebate processors, made false earnings claims, and misrepresented the refund ("Make Money Or It's Free") guarantee," according to the FTC complaint.

Janice L. Charter, an attorney with the FTC who worked on the case, tipped her hat to the broadcast, saying, "'20/20's' insights were valuable to us as we pursued our investigation."

ABC News tracked down Michael Allen Brooks, the owner of ProcessFromHome, outside his Newport Beach, Calif., apartment complex. Brooks denied any wrongdoing and blamed copycat Web sites for the flood of complaints.

In fact, Brooks also denied ownership of the operation. It was only during a follow-up phone conversation that he conceded ownership.

A California judge will have the final word. The FTC is asking for preliminary and permanent injunction, and for an order to freeze Brooks' assets.

As "20/20" previously reported, con artists were posting bogus work-at-home job leads at an unprecedented rate.

"Currently there's a 54-to-1 scam ratio among work-at-home job leads on the Internet," said Staffcentrix co-founder, Christine Durst, who screens up to 5,000 online job offers every week and rates them on her Web site. "That means that for every 55 [work-at-home] job leads that you find on the Internet, 54 of them are going to be outright scams or downright suspicious."

Click here to read the original "20/20" story on work-at-home scams.

Click here to watch the original "20/20" report on work-at-home scams.