Hello Mark,

In his earlier post, Alberto seems to think that being physically outside U.S. jurisdiction places a safety barrier around him and those like him (myself included).

I beg to differ. The U.S. authorities regard electronic signals directed through telephone cables and in the airwaves over U.S. territory, and detectable by American citizens, as being on American soil.

Under present arrangements, a marketer here in the U.K., if deemed to have committed fraudulent transactions against American citizens over the web might be extradited to the U.S. to face criminal charges. Of course, an individual or business entity would first have to be identified.

What Alberto also seems to be saying is that it should be legitimate for everyone to make any outrageous (i.e. false) claim because some.

He and others like him (myself excluded) might well argue that the vast majority of people aren’t fooled by outrageous claims anyway, and that the new regulations are draconian.

But if people really aren’t fooled, then they will buy from merchants trading transparently in the first place, namely, U.S. and foreign citizens buying from American vendors, thereby boosting the flagging American economy and increasing equally flagging tax revenues.

I’m not trying to imply that dishonest online markerting wasn’t a serious concern… merely that the underlying economic conditions have made their introduction easier.

To some extent, therefore, compliance by foreign internet marketers is a side issue. But those of us outside the U.S. must comply with the new FTC regulations if we wish to retain the trust of what is after all, our largest market.

Over the past few years, many governments have sought ways of preventing online fraud (in the hope also of controlling the internet). If we all went down the offshore company route, as Alberto recommends, we would be endangering a valuable resource purely for the purpose of marketing dishonestly.

But, as I have been at pains to demonstrate above, such an exercise would be pointless. So my rebuilt internet marketing and video tutorial website at http://www.netprofitsinsight.com/ will be going live in mid-January, 2010. Compliance assured!

So Mark, I hope you and all of your readers in the U.S. have enjoyed the Thanksgiving holiday, and I wish you all a very merry Christmas and a happy and prosperous New Year.

Anthony Harris

Thanks for simplifying the rules. I know someone that needs to make some changes to a website. I’ll be sure to let them know of the new FTC rules.

BR
“W”

Just think of the impact of having to substantiate the claims of what this-or-that “reform” will achieve!