McCaskill has harsh words for stimulus ‘scam ads’

Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) slammed the efforts of scam artists who promise stimulus money to individuals Tuesday.

She tweeted:

Scam ads are disgustng.Ads tryng to take advantage of peoples pain by promisng govt help,stimulus $ for a fee.I wanna help nail em.Seen any?

Twitter Room is not certain if McCaskill referred to any specific ad. In March, however, there was a mini-scandal about similar ads that popped up on Facebook and Google.

CNET reported that:

Deceptive Web sites, advertisements, and e-mail campaigns have cropped up across the Web in recent weeks, luring consumers into scams by promising them federal grant money from the stimulus package, the Federal Trade Commission said Wednesday.

The FTC is investigating these scams and is reaching out to the private sector for help. Google on Wednesday morning committed to investigating stimulus-related ads that violate its anti-scam policy, and Facebook has pulled ads for stimulus funds from its site, in accordance with a new advertising policy it implemented this week.