Cover of Won't Fix Episode 18: With Jon Leibowitz Former Chairman, FTC

Won't Fix Episode 18: With Jon Leibowitz Former Chairman, FTC

Won't Fix Episode 18: With Jon Leibowitz Former Chairman, FTC

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My guest Jon Leibowitz spent nearly a decade at the Federal Trade Commission, and four years running it — as Chairman from 2009 to 2013, right through the wreckage of the financial crisis.During Jon’s chairmanship (March 2009 to February 2013), the FTC's enforcement centered on "last dollar" frauds preying on Recession-battered consumers: coordinated national sweeps against mortgage-rescue and foreclosure-relief scams (leading to the 2010 MARS Rule banning advance fees), and a landmark $108 million settlement with Countrywide over mishandling struggling borrowers. It hit deceptive marketers hard — the roughly $359 million Jesse Willms "free trial" negative-option case, a $163 million scareware judgment against fake-virus-pop-up operators, the 2011 fake-news-site sweep over bogus acai-berry weight-loss claims and phony Oprah and Rachael Ray endorsements, and a 2012 international crackdown on India-based tech-support scam boiler rooms.On the robocall front, it brought cases like the Cash Grant Institute and the auto-warranty scheme (the telemarketer who surrendered his Mercedes) and launched the public Robocall Challenge contest. Beyond fraud, his FTC also built the agency's modern privacy agenda — landmark settlements with Google and Facebook and a record $22.5 million penalty against Google over Safari tracking — and stayed active on antitrust and competition alongside all of it.After the FTC, he went into private practice at Davis Polk, testified before Congress more times than he can probably count, and today he chairs the National Consumers League — one of the oldest consumer advocacy groups in the country.But here's what makes this conversation timely. The scams he chased fifteen years ago never died. They got faster, cheaper, and — thanks to AI — a whole lot more convincing.Chapter Timestamps:00:00 Intro2:33 FTC career and current work4:03 Old scams, new technology, and the rise of AI-enabled fraud5:30 From the “spam king” to large-scale online deception6:51 Fraud supply chains, overseas actors, and cross-border enforcement9:52 AI deepfakes and the persuasive power of modern scams11:21 Affiliate marketing, robocalls, and weakened FTC monetary remedies14:42 State attorneys general and platform cooperation17:48 - Shared intelligence and the multi-provider nature of scams18:23 AI fraud’s scale and fabricated “evidence”20:33 Long-form fake media and recurring-subscription traps23:39 Domain authentication and the failure of voluntary privacy standards27:03 Reporting, independent evaluation, and regulatory balance33:02 Trust in the internet and FTC rules against impersonation and fake reviews34:53 Business verification and the trade-off between friction and safety37:14 A $0 trial that becomes $34.90 per month39:58 Closing: protecting reality while preserving innovationResources & Links:Rob Leathern: (https://www.linkedin.com/in/leathern/)Jon Leibowitz: (https://www.linkedin.com/in/jon-leibowitz-14091679/)Steve Martin scam video website: https://assist.saeculums.com/ Cases from Jon's era:Sanford Wallace "Spam King" (CD-ROM tray) — FTC release: https://search.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2004/10/ftc-cracks-down-spyware-operation — The FTC's 2004 complaint describes spyware that popped open CD-ROM trays and then flashed a "FINAL WARNING!!" pushing paid fixes. Nice follow-up detail: a court later ordered Wallace to give up $4,089,500, from selling the "fix" at roughly $30 a copy.Scareware $163M judgment (Kristy Ross): https://www.ftc.gov/node/47528 — Useful context for listeners: a co-defendant and his father had to give up $8.2 million under a 2011 settlement, which is a good contrast with the giant headline number.2012 international tech-support crackdown: https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2012/10/ftc-halts-massive-tech-support-scams — This is the press conference Jon describes; one of the six operations found victims by buying Google ads that appeared when people searched for their computer company's support number, which echoes your toll-free-number point.Jesse Willms $359M settlement: https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2012/02/ftc-halts-deceptive-practices-marketer-who-collected-359-million-using-bogus-free-trial-offersThe Atlantic, "The Dark Lord of the Internet" (Willms profile, 2014): https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2014/01/the-dark-lord-of-the-internet/355726/Fake news sites / acai sweep (2011): https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2011/04/ftc-seeks-halt-10-operators-fake-news-sites-making-deceptive-claims-about-acai-berry-weight-lossCentral Coast Nutraceuticals (fake Oprah / Rachael Ray endorsements): https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2012/01/internet-marketers-acai-berry-weight-loss-pills-colon-cleansers-pay-15-million-settle-ftc-chargesAMG Capital Management v. FTC (SCOTUSblog case page): https://www.scotusblog.com/case-files/cases/...
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