International Enforcement Network Meets to Address Cross-Border Consumer Fraud and Issues Letter to ICANN - Speakers Included Costa Rica President Laura Chinchilla

Members of the International Consumer Protection and Enforcement Network (ICPEN) and, Costa Rican, as well as other international dignitaries met in San Jose, Costa Rica from February 27 through March 2 to review international efforts to combat cross-border consumer fraud and explore new global protection initiatives. ICPEN is a network of consumer protection authorities comprised of members from 42 countries and partners from 11 additional jursidictions. More than 40 jurisdictions and 170 officials participated in the meeting.

The ICPEN meeting included a keynote speech from the President of Costa Rica, Laura Chinchilla, and was attended by various other high-level international officials. The ICPEN Presidency wrote a letter to the International Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) to express several Members' concerns in relation to the changes proposed by ICANN with respect to its planned rapid expansion of the domain name system. In particular, many ICPEN Members fear that the changes could result in numerous consumer protection problems, in addition to making consumers more vulnerable to online fraud and hampering law enforcement efforts.

During the conference, ICPEN Members also explored current issues facing consumer protection authorities, such as false advertising, wire transfer fraud, and the new enforcement challenges posed by emerging online and mobile payments. The ICPEN Enforcement Steering Group also launched a new project to develop an online investigations training manual. This manual will draw on the participation of consumer protection law enforcement officials to identify superior investigative practices and procedures. Other topics such as consumer empowerment through Best Practices and a presentation on the ICPEN Bi-annual Intelligence Report were discussed during the conference.  The conference included a two-day "best practices" training on topics such as conducting investigations of "negative-option" Internet scams , innovative approaches to consumer education such as using social networks to engage and educate consumers, and discussing cooperation and collaboration to empower consumers through cross-border cases .