A 2006 study by the Federal Trade Commission found that many advertisements
targeting Hispanics are deceptive. In response to the findings, the FTC sent out warning letters to 166 advertisers and 77 media outlets requesting that they reevaluate their ads. FTC Chairman Deborah Platt Majoras made the announcements at last week’s New York City Hispanic Fraud Prevention Forum, which brought together members of the FTC, government officials and community members to discuss how to prevent deceptive ads directed toward the Hispanic community. The 167 individuals who took part in the April 19 study., came from across the United States and five Latin American countries. Participants conducted a one-day screening of Spanish-language newspapers, magazines, websites, television channels and radio stations for potentially deceptive ads and while the FTC could not say how many ads the participants screened in total, 482 were submitted as possibly misleading. These ads made claims about curing diseases, like cancer and diabetes, and suggested a variety of “get-rich-quick” business schemes.
FTC spokeswoman Jackie Dizdul said that even though there is no statistical evidence to explain why the Hispanic community is more at risk to deceptive ads, Hispanic fraud victims provided “anecdotal evidence” that showed how advertisers got away with deception. “Advertisers think they can hide behind the language barrier,” Dizdul said. In 2004 the FTC conducted a survey that found that 25 million adults in the United States fell victim to fraud that year. Hispanics might’ve made up over 14 percent of that total, but Alaska Natives and American Indians made up 34 percent, and 17 percent of fraud victims were African Americans. Dizdul said that because the fraud against these groups is committed in English, the FTC combats it in its normal fraud program, but the Hispanic fraud is “often best dealt with on a local or regional basis.”
