>> michelle, thank you very, very much for extraordinarily warm, generous words of introduction. i am very proud to be working with the president and with you and all of us here and throughout the country and the world, extraordinarily grateful for the remarkable and inspiring job that you are doing as the first lady of our nation. thank you for that. it is amazing. [applause] we all talk about passionate 3 advocates for women and girls both in our country and around the world. i think everyone here would agree that at the top of that list, we will find our first lady michelle obama and we're grateful for her leadership. it is an honor for me today to

be on this stage with these remarkable, indeed, extraordinary women, and i want to recognize, if i may, very quickly, another woman of courage, the first lady was kind enough to introduce her but she marched against apartheid as a student in south africa. she worked hard in the decades since to improve the lives of women with respect to the environment and health, and i am delighted to call her my wife. [applause] as you know, i returned less than 48 hours ago from europe and the middle east where i visited the countries that represent a very broad spectrum of progress on gender equality, and i met with dozens of leaders, but i also listened to a lot of every day citizens. people who, like today's

honorees, know that you don't have to be elected or appointed in order to make a difference. i spoke with one woman in berlin. she is muslim. she told me she is part of an organization of teenagers who have created a dialogue about equality and tolerance, so my friends, steps from the markings, the old markings and brick of the berlin wall. a young muslim woman today 4 proudly stands up with her peers to map a very different and better, more open future. her activism spoke to me about a special kind of courage. courage that i saw years ago and when i met her in her home when she was confined in burma or the courage i saw again in four burmese women who were the first

people i met right after i had been sworn in as secretary of state. i met in this building on my third day as secretary. two of them had been political prisoners, and today, all of them are giving back to the very country that had once confined them. it is courage, and it is not just the courage that you see in women in the way that michelle obama just described. courage of people raising kids, certainly women raising them, but also the courage of every man who defends his daughter's right to an equal education, or every brother who challenges the law that keeps his sister from owning property, or opening a business, or every husband, who not only promises that the cycle of domestic violence can stop with him, but who proves it. i see that courage. i see that hope in every woman on this stage, and you will learn that in a moment.

in a testimony of the four honorees who cannot be here today because of the repression and the intimidation that still festers around the world. i see how much work we still have to do and so do you. one of the awardees is in hiding, another is in prison. 5 we present a fourth award for a brave woman whose life was brazenly stolen by brutal violence. their cause is our cause. women's issues, as we know, are more than just women's issues. they are family issues. they are economic issues. they are security issues. they are justice issues. they matter to all of us men, as well as women, boys as well as girls, those who live in free countries, as well as those who don't. that is why, including with the

work of secretary clinton, and ambassador, the obama administration has put advancing the status of women and girls right at the center of america's foreign policy. [applause] president obama created the white house council of women and girls in order to help prioritize of gender and equality in the work of every single agency. secretary clinton named the first ambassador at large for global woman's issues and made protecting the rights of women and girls a signature of her work. one of the first things that i was priveledged and excited to do together with barbara boxer was when i was chairman of the foreign relations committee, establish a new sub committee on global women's issues, from the

white house to the state department, to the senate, women and girls across the world have more champions than american government than ever before, and we can be proud of [applause] that. but still everybody here knows we have to do more. political stability, excuse me, peace, and prosperity, all require every one of us to do what we can to advance human rights for everyone regardless of their gender and ours. that will remain a fundamental priority of the department of state and the foreign policy of the united states. today i am proud to announce a new effort to that end. we are launching a full participation fund to support burrows within the state

department and beam sis around the globe that develop innovative ways to be able to achieve gender equality in the work that they do. the fund will supply money for new initiatives or expand projects that are already underway that have proven themselves to be successful. i would like to share with you that before i was born, my mother volunteered as a red cross nurse in europe where she happened to be at the dawn of world war ii. when the natzis invaded france. she fled paris and made her way to portugal and ultimately found her way back home to boston. my mother spent 50 years as a girl scout leader and a community activists particularly on the environment. i recently reread a letter she wrote my father during the war, a letter that my siblings and i still cherish. speaking of the war, she wrote very simply "s there something for everyone to do."

while international woman's day reminds us that there is something that each of us can still do to build the progress and build on the progresses that we have made and to protect the health, the education, the welfare, the human rights of women and girls all over this world. we can do more to pursue equality and tolerance like the teenager that i met in berlin, to pursue full political representation like the woman i met in burma. to inspire people all over the world just like each of the honorees that are here on this stage here today. there is still something for everyone to do even if you are somewhere that doesn't welcome you in the doing of it. that is why it is called courage. so as son of a woman who reminded me of that sort of never-ending responsibility, as a father of two daughters who deserve the same freedom and rights as everybody else's sons, and as the first male secretary

to present the international women of courage award, it is now my honor to introduce you to the nine extraordinary women who refuse to be intimidated or silenced. i would ask the first lady to please join me, if she would, for these presentations. i would ask each of the honorees to join the first lady and stand beside her one at a time as i read the citation. our first honoree is second lieutenant malalai bahaduri of 8 afghanistan. [applause]

when the taliban fell in 2002, malalai made a life-changing decision. she left her job as a telecommunications operator to take a career in law enforcement. when her uncle finds out, they broke her nose. undeterred, she was eventually elected as the first female member of the afghan interdiction unit. and to this day, she endures death threats and daily discrimination, but she has never let that weaken her resolve. she is already halfway through a training program that will allow her to be promoted to an officer and the first woman officer in her elite unit. [applause]

so for courageous and dedicated service to drug law enforcement and training in afghanistan shall as the first sergeant the police in afghanistan's national interdiction unit, we name malalai bahaduri a woman of courage. [applause] [cheers and applause] >> julieta castellanos has worked to overcome corruption,

drug trafficking and one of the highest murder rates in the world. when the country was polarized in the wake of the 2009, julieta helped heal the wounds dividing the honduran people and she made recommendations to help prevent similar crisis from ever happening again. she has organized others outside of government to become a power voice ofsecurity and human rights justice,protections and even when the honduran national police murdered her son two years ago, julieta refused to turn inward or give up. instead, she challenged her griefs into a powerful call for action that is delivering meaningful change for the honduran people. for pressing relentlessly to reform, honduran security and justice sector institutions, and forging a civil society coalition, to advance that goal, we recognize julieta castellanos as woman of courage.

[applause] during the past 20 years in nigeria, dr. josephine obiajulu odumakin has handled more than 2,000 cases of agencies violating women's rights. these cases include everything from negligence to assault and killing as the president of the campaign for democracy, she has personally led almost every protest, march, lecture, and workshop to encourage the rule of law and democracy in

nigeria. she has been arrested or detained 17 times but never stopped crusading for the rights of the nigerian people. her courage, strength and leadership, tirelessly advocating for human rights, social justice and women's equality and advancement in nigeria, dr. josephine obiajulu odumakin is a woman of courage. [applause] when the asad regime began committing atrocities in syria two years ago.

immediately began documenting the crime on the internet and reporting them to international media. the government accused her of being a foreign agent and she was forced into hiding and she did not stop working. today even though she has been in hiding for 22 months, she is a leading voice in the syrian revolution working with the local coordinating committees and the syrian human rights information link to expose violations, her web site is the international community's main source of information about the killings and the torture of civilians and security forces within syria, so for bringing light, and the human rights abuses carried out by the regime, for continuing to raise awareness of the crisis among international community and for supporting a free and democratic government for the greater good of the country, regardless of the threats to her own person,

she is a woman of courage. [applause] >> elena milashina has built a career investigating drug trafficking, terrorism, disasters and the killings of fellow journalist and topics that few others have been willing to for obvious -- touch for observe reasons. in the face of threats from the government, corporations and even private citizens, elena has continued to expose the truth and to combat negative

influences in russian society. she bears the scars of physical and verbal assaults, but also carries the confidence of the many whose lives she has made 11 better through her commitment. so for bold and courageous investigative reporting and for defending human rights in russia and neighboring countries, we recognize elena milashina as a woman of courage. [applause] >> as a former member of the communist party, phong tan became a name for herself. when she started posts articles online that were critical old the government and the legal system. after she was expelled from the

party, she started a blog called truth and justice. becoming one of the first bloggers in vietnam to comment on political news and on events the authorities considered off-limits. she helped inspire citizen bloggers and journalists in vietnam, who today are committed to spreading information and alternate opinions to the vietnamese people. she was arrested in 2011, and sentenced to ten years in prison for allegedly conducting propaganda against the state. yet even as state security forces were dragging her away from a rigged verdict, she cried out to all who could hear, unjust, unjust, for her dedication to continually demanding the better government for her people, or her willingness to take risk for her beliefs, for her life experience and skills as a writer that serve an inspiration to women in vietnam, ta phong tan is a 2013 woman of courage. [applause]

tibet has become increasingly identified with protest against the deteriorating human rights condition for chinese tibetan citizens. against this backdrop, tsering woeser has emerged from tibet. through her web site, called "invisible tibet" her portrait, her nonfiction work, her use of communication networks like twitter,bravely documented the situation she hasaround her, for her efforts, she

is now subject to constant surveillance followed by security agents, and at this moment, is under house arrest. she says that to bear witness is to give voice, and that is what she is doing for the millions of tibetans who can not speak for themselves, and she has vowed to never give up, or compromise, so for courageously striving to improve human rights conditions, for tibetan citizens by illuminating her fight and give stories who might otherwise never be heard, tsering woeser is a woman of courage. [applause] >> obviously, since some of the women cannot be here, we know that will not deter them from continuing their work and therefore it should not deter us

from honoring the bravery and sharing their stories today. we proudly do so. next it is my honor to introduce fartuun adan of somalia. [applause] fartuun worked alongside her husband advocating for peace and education in somalia for years before warlords assassinated her husband in 1996. she fled to canada and she raised her three daughters there as refuges. fartuun returned home to continue her work for justice and reconciliation in somalia. she started with problems that are far too often absolutely

ignored in societies, rape, and other sexual gender based violence like child marriage. she made the first rape crisis center and that has helped more than 400 somalia women get a safe, new start on life and she has reached out to help hundreds of former child soldiers in order for them to be able to reintegrate into society offering them an education and job training. many are now working as teachers, electricians, mechanics and they are filling the go jobs thatomalia needs in order to recover from more that than two decades of violence. one person, folks, for champion the right of women and youth in somalia, through post-trauma support provision, skills,

training, education and advocacy for never losing hope for a peaceful somalia, we honor fartuun adan as a woman of courage. [applause] finally we hon are a woman known simply as brave, big heart, fearless. this young woman was studying to be a doctor when the boarded a bus in deli last december. for hours, she was brutally gang raped, then tossed away with her friend left naked and bleeding alongside of the road and left to die, but she kept

fighting. over the next two weeks, she became aware of the growing movement that was supporting her and the outrage and indigitation ignited around the world, as she fought for her life, she decided to fight for justice, too. she defied her doctors and the culture of silence giving two detailed accounts of hr attack that the police used to arrest her rapists. her bravery inspired millions of women and men to come together with a simple message, no more. no more looking the other way when gender-based violence happens. no more stigma against victims or survivors, her fight survives her, for inspiring people to work together to end violence against women in india around the world by displaying courage and demanding justice as this inscription reads and the great

sadness we honor nirbhaya as a woman of courage and honor posthumously. please stand and join me if you would for moment of silence for nirbhaya. thank you very much. it is my honor to read part of a statement from nirbhaya's mother and father. this is what they wrote. "we never imagined that the girl we thought was our daughter would one day be the daughter of the entire world. she was meant to be the daughter of the world, this is a huge achievement in itself.

she was always different from other children, other children cry when being sent to school. she was an extraordinary child who would cry when she was not going to school. she was happy girl and even in times of struggle she would stay cheerful. we gave equal treatment to all three children. there was no discrimination for her being a girl. my daughter was made of steel. once she decided she had to do something, there was no look back. she would work at call centers during nights and study during the day. she would never get enough time to sleep, just about two hours at the most. and despite the odds and our poverty, she always managed to achieve and move ahead. she had just one goal in life, to study and become a doctor. today our message to the world is do not tolerate any attack on your dignity and honor, do not silently bear ill treatment. other women would keep silent and hideaway when they were subjected to sexual misconduct.

they would not report it to the police or lodge any complaints. they were scared of the stigma. that has changed, the fear i now gone, and while her end was horrendous, her case is impacter strength to all women to fight and to improve the system. silent aren india and the rest this incident has opened their minds and empowered them. 16 they are no longer scared of what anyone will say. i would like to invite fartuun adano of those we have honored here today. [applause] >> thank you very much. i have a speech but i don't think i can read it.

i am not going to read it. i am too nervous sitting bow side michelle. i am too nervous sitting beside michelle. [laughter] i would never expect this when working in somalia. i never thought someone is going to see the work you are doing in somalia, but that is what happened and i really appreciate it. first lady, i honestly do not know what to say. thank you. also, i would like to talk about on behalf of the women, these really shall really fabulous women, and the work we do. it doesn't matter where we live, it is always the same. as a woman, we share one work,

we are always quiet. we don't talk. we don't say anything. we just listen whenever someone tells us. i am a mom. i have three girls. i have to be a role model. not only to them but to all young girls. not only somalia, but all over the place. we need to speak out. we need to be involved. we need to be a part of this change. i mean decision making. we have in somalia, women who are fighting. we have a government that is strong. we're fight. all these women who are doing amazing job in somalia. they never get encouraged when it comes to the decision making. when it come those decision

make, when it comes to anything in their life. someone has to make a decision for them. that is not right. that is where we stand today. i am so happy, i am nervous, i am so happy to be here, and yesterday when i saw the president obama signing this, it it was a lead. i knew. i know we can challenge. this name came because it does not matter where we live. it is for the young generations to become leaders to change and learn. the lot of work to do appe.

we want to keep fighting. hopefully, one day we will change. the next generation will get there. thank you very much for having me here. i'm sorry i did not bring my speech. [applause] >> thank you for the women here and all of the women everywhere.

i have met with your president. i have talked about the role women are playing in your country. i have no doubt that with leaders like you there will be a bright future. i thank you for everything you do every single day. i am sure like all of the youth i am inspired by these women. on behalf of mrs. obama and the international a man of courage, thank you for joining us today. it is our privilege to be here. at this time i kindly ask you to remain seated for a moment while we take a brief photo and ask our guests to leave the stage here as a as you to support

these women and a reception room upstairs. thank you very much. if you stay seated for one moment we will do this quickly and then we can all go celebrate. thank you very much. [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2013]

[applause] >> according to the associated press, the obama rebuilt a courage plan who voted against burgeon into tests of four women. the state department will not honor her because of the tweets. said her account was hacked. >> one of the things that an early american wife was taught to do, she supported her husband's career. usually they're entertaining.

dolly was both a socially adept person and politically savvy. she could stricture entertainment in such a way that she can lobby for her husband under the guise of entertaining. she also thought it was very important to create a setting in the white house almost like a stage for the performance of her husband and the conduct of politics and diplomacy. >> dolly madison. we will follow her into the person that history remembers. we will include your phone calls, facebook comments , tweet monday at 9:00 eastern. also on c-span radio and c- span.org. >> original people, at the alamo, our environment. canales and discussions from this year's tucson festival of

books. live on the photography of edward curtis. on what animals can teach us about health and healing. sunday, rajiv chandrasekaren on afghanistan. it is live this weekend on c- span2. next, at the funeral of a venezuelan president hugo chávez. he died from cancer this week at age 58 after 14 years in power. according to venezuelan officials, his body will be embalmed and put on display permanently. nicholas mindoro and reverend jesse jackson jr. spoke at the funeral. this is 45 minutes.

>> let us join hands and our heads in prayer. keep your seats. i want to thank the family for allowing us to share a prayer on this occasion. today we are here not because hugo chavez has died but because he lived. death is certain. life is uncertain. thus, a life of service matters. we pray to god today that the soul of the hugo chavez will find peace, and acceptance for his service in the kingdom. grant him mercy and grace. the chavez family mourns today. comfort them.

venezuela cries today. reassure them venezuela is not left alone.

for madura, grant him wisdom and support as he keeps hopes and dreams alive, as he picks up the baton and makes a great nation greater. we pray, god, today that you will heal the breach between the u.s. and venezuela. yea, thou we walk through valleys and shadows of death, we fear no evil.

for thou art with us. let us forgive, redeem, and move on to higher ground. we are neighbors. we share the same hemisphere. we play ball together. we'd trade resources together.

we fight drugs together. we shared dreams together. we are bound by culture and environment. even the death of this leader, nor any death will separate us from your love, dear god. neither heights nor depths shall separate us. now, jesus, remove our doubts and fears. dry our eyes. today, a great nation mourns. how we measure a great leader is by how he treats the least of these. hugo fed the hungry. he lifted the poor.

he raised their hopes. he help them realize their dreams. and so today we do mourn, because we have lost a lot. but we have a lot left. a stable government, an orderly transition. we pray that the presidents

of our great nations will meet soon and find common ground. while it may be politically difficult, it is the morally right thing to do. nothing is too hard for god. and so let us rise. we fall down sometimes by our own errors. we fall down sometimes because of our fears. but we get up again because the ground is no place for a champion.

the ground is no place for a champion. the ground is no place for champions. let there be peace between nations. amen. [applause] [audience chanting] >> as we begin the ceremony, we would like to thank the presidents at the ceremony, the prime minister of trinidad

tobago, the prime minister of curacao, the premier of the republic of turkey, the vice minister of the republic of viet nam. we would also like to convey greetings to all of the delegations and thank them for being present at this very solemn and important moment for our republic. we also would like to convey greetings to the people's republic of algeria, the delegation from the russian federation, the delegation from the republic of argentina, the delegation from brazil, the delegation from the republic of gambia, the delegation from grenada, the delegation from the palestinian state, the

delegation from the democratic socialist republic of sri lanka, the delegation from the republic of portugal, the delegation from the people's republic of china, the delegation from france, the delegation from the republic of lebanon, the delegation from the democratic republic of sri lanka, from canada, from the republic of angola, from the republic of greece, finland, the ukraine, from the republic of

croatia, from the kingdom of jordan, from the commonwealth of australia, from the kingdom of denmark, the delegation from the republic of serbia, and from the democratic republic of korea. korea and the republic of south korea, republic of slovenia, the u.s. delegation. we also would like to express our appreciation for having international, guilty lateral organizations that are present today to accompany us -- multinational organizations that are present to day to

accompany us as we mourn the death of president chavez. the o.a.s., the ibero-american summit, aladi, una sur. c.a.f., ec-lac, fal, unicef, and the u.n. d.p. we would also like to a traversed our sincere appreciation for all of the dear friends of commander hugo chavez who came here to bid a final farewell including mr. sean penn.

[applause] we will now hear some words from nicolas maduro, vice president of the republic of venezuela. [applause] >> dear children, grandchildren, brothers, family members of our commander, president, father, and guide, hugo rafael chavez, heads of state, prime ministers, princes, from all four corners of the globe who have come here to

express with their love and their presence, their full support and solidarity to the glorious people of venezuela, to our commander, hugo chavez. we would like to thank you all from the bottom of our hearts for having come here from your own countries to render this tribute and to reflect on your

words of encouragement and comfort that we need so much during this tragic moment in the 21st century. dear and esteemed leaders who are here representing social movements, political and social leaders who are there on the streets with the people, who have brought music to our children, to our young people, to breathe fresh air into the soul, our dear esteemed colleagues and friends from the government of president hugo chavez, our esteemed colleagues

in government, here we are seeing him in a way that we hoped we would never have to see him. when that immense pain that is so overwhelming, as faced by mankind, and here we are, commander. yesterday, someone told us that, and when we heard these words, we really felt this moment in its full context, and she'd try to encourage us, she said, "remain strong because his soul, his spirit was so strong

that his own body could no longer withstand it, and now he is free and his spirit is in the universe expanding and filling us with blessings and love, bringing together all of those blessings of all of the religions, of all societies, all the love that exists in this universe, to bring us together." and we know this is the way that we feel, commander. and in our prayers, people say that it is time to forgive. and you taught us, you taught

us about that infinite love that you need to have in order to forgive during the most trying of times. no leader in the history of our country has been so maligned, so vilified, and so violent attack than our own commander, our president, never in 200 years have so many lies been told about a man, not neither here nor anywhere else in the world. even boulevard, who was of course betrayed, but they never dared to vilify him during his time and even after his time. but they could not do it. the allies and the hatred could not do it, because here he is, our commander.

why couldn't they do it? you know why, dear and a steam heads of state who have brought your pure love and shown that to this man beyond ideologies and political frontiers, because our commander emanated this from within. he had the strongest shield at any human being could have, and that was his purity, the truth, his shield of purity, the love of christ, a true son of christ that saved him from disgrace and infamy. and here we see him undefeated, transparent, pure, alive, throughout time, for this and all future periods of time! they could not match you!

you'll never be defeated! [applause] [audience chanting] we in our lives were loyal to him. all of us. all of the great men in venezuela. and we learned that because he taught this to us. we did not know that. many of us, from time we were children, we joined the revolutionary ranks and would go through different paths.

some of you in the military, and here we have the generation, the generation of the children of the military. i ask that you please rise. here are your children, commander. here is the national olivary an army who are here with their swords, with their weapons, an army of peace, armed forces, freedom fighters. [applause] and from the time we were very young, from the age of 11 or 12, some of our homes, with our parents, we never in the path to redeeming our nation never did we ever know about our history. we never knew that if you truly want to build the legacy left by hugo chavez, the first thing you need to do is recognize that he helped us rediscover our own country's history.

he raised the banners of the liberators, simon boulevard, and at the same time he embodied the spirit and he taught us to love and also forgive. he also taught us to love our history. and that is why today we say, from the bottom of our hearts, and i asked your mother and your daughters, commander, i ask that i will just say that as an undefeated person, we will continue to forgive those who vilify him and maligned him and

all of the blame that people try to throw on you. and in that history, all of our leaders, starting with our greatest leaders, simon boulevard, was not allowed to come into the united provinces, of venezuela. marshall was threatened if he came back into the provinces of greater columbia, our colombia that is still thriving with the desire to be refounded. they all died. in excile because they were betrayed. some betrayed simon bolivar, who died in santa marta. we sat down to extend the hand to work together, together, and that is how it began, president santos, thank you very much.

thank you. [applause] the marshal, his body was left on the ground, and the poor picked up his body and they took his body. he spent 70 years lost. he had this great bolivarian general to bring him from his ostracized status and taken to

the cathedral, and with our brothers, with the bolivarian republic of ecuador. why did it have to be this way? why was the final hour this way? why is it that the great leaders who founded this country, who walked from the caribbean, shoeless, why was there so much treason? why was there so much selfishness and witness? because the self interested in the way. they were not the supreme interests of the people. there were times of chaos and confusion, and bolivar was not able to consolidate those lands they liberated. and other great leaders, the

general of the sovereign nation, the redeemer raise the banners, betrayed. and he also died of a gunshot wound on january 10, 1860. when the victorious troops arrived in caracas. this was all talk to us by our teacher and our father. at that time, oil had already been discovered in venezuela, and a nationalist leader, who was ill, came out and 1908 and his ship had just barely sailed with the trail of the vice- president took place, and we had a 30-year dictatorship, the worst dictatorship we have seen in the 20th-century. and the country was looted of its oil.

venezuela was the no. 1 producer of oil in the 1920's. and our country was looted. so, commander, once you told us that in the presidential play you read this account to commander fidel castro, commander and chief of the liberating forces of latin america and caribbean, and commander fidel castro, after he heard you and very attentively told you, "hugo, what a sad account. i did not know that. but you can rest assured that neither you nor i will die that way. when we must depart, we will depart with our people, marching in victory, with the blessing and the love of the righteous and the just." fidel castro's words became reality. here you are, commander, with your people standing, all of your men and women lack oil as we swore we would be to reject all of your men and women loyal as we swore we would be to you, and you, of president, as head of the bolivarian republic of venezuela, commander of your armed forces, in your land, in your country, under your command, your sole command.

we have broken with the

curse of the trail against our country, and we will continue to break the curse of defeat. [applause] we have broken that curse. here we have the sword, pulled out of its sheath, and we have his eyes looking to christ.

the last few days, just a few hours before the announcements were made on december 8, some colleagues went to see him, and other colleagues from the struggle, the struggles from the past and also the struggles that are to come. a pure revolutionary, the children of our commander, hugo chavez, and our colleague rafael, they always accompanied him, rosa, maria, all of his brothers.

our comrade jorge, dear friend rosa, and during a very trying morning, i went there to his room. we were together, jorge and i. jorge has constantly been writing in his notebook, and commander asked that we would help them to undertake a task. and he told us -- i think i am on to have to write a few final words of my testament. and he gave us an order. the last will and testament of hugo chavez.

he said, "help me with some ideas so i can sit down and prepare this." we never carried out that order. we could not do it. it was impossible. that order had already been carried out, because the life of our commander has been a legacy, his passion, his words, his actions, his efforts, his people. the people of venezuela are his legacy, the port and the humble of this world. those in despair, those oppressed people from time immemorial, those of us, the grandchildren of the slaves, we are his living legacy.

he left his legacy, signed and sealed by the people. and the first one is this. if anybody would like to know something about hugo chavez, truly know about hugo chavez and do away with any misconceptions or lies and read the words written by him, the constitution formally approved by the people, debated by the people,

and learn about his words and actions. what we are today is embodied here. this is our guide. if anybody has any questions or doubts, these are the words, the supreme text of the nation, the text of peace. when this constitution was debated, we went out to the streets to debate and there was a referendum held. some venezuelans came out to vote no, to not approve this constitution. well, as we have seen in 1999, commander chavez, as we were involved in the constitutional

process, he said, "be patient. what is just is just, and this text will be recognized by everyone." and today, commander, we assert this is the constitution of everyone, even those who oppose us take it as belonging to them as well. this is our guide, the died of unity, of peace, peaceful coexistence. this is the charter for carrying out a democratic revolution. and if you want to know more about what our undefeated commander thought and dreamed about, as raul castro said yesterday, and defeated, if you want to know the thoughts of and what he thought 21st century venezuela should look like, this is the legacy that he left, that he wrote in june 2012. and the executive vice president, who worked directly

with commander chavez, and he left with us five historic tasks. five historic tasks. that reflect the thoughts, the set of values and principles inspired on the ideas of simon bolivar, our founding father, inspired by the wisdom of our liberators and indigenous communities, inspired by christ. if anyone would like to ask, how is a human being when he is the true son of christ, our redeemer, and it devotes his life, his soul and spirit for a

society, for a people, for the oppressed, then we have to recognize that you could chavez was an authentic christian, a man of the streets, of the people, a redeemer with christ, a protector with christ of the poor, in this country and every country around the world. so there are five historic tasks that are completely consistent and democratic. because after a democratic discussion, this country of men and women who are free and conscious of their rights, the commander approved this legacy. he never lied in politics, in anything. when he discovered his own path and realized that neil liberal

capitalism, it was impossible to stabilize a society, to provide equality and happiness to society and that it was impossible to maintain a truly democratic nation, he said in december 2004, "i am going to raise the banner of our socialism, not the indigenous bolivarian, inter-american socialism, we will build that dream of democracy, of socialism," and here he has left that system, that legacy of

five main principles. first of all to maintain and consolidate the independents gained over the last 14 years of the people's democratic revolution and the bolivarian revolution. at secondly, to build our socialism, which is the verse, democratic, hemispheric and intra-american. and the third task is to build a venezuela as a power within the context of the power of latin america that will continue to be built over the next few years. and we see this reflected today with the wide diversity of heads of states that have come to this event, and we need to be one single power. it was here that various

presidents and heads of states have sat, here with chavez, as a cadet was trained, where 30, 40 years later that cadet would become the president and who would found at the community of latin american and caribbean states, and we now know the president of chile has taken other responsibilities. we want to thank you very much for your words. and we also would like to thank raul castro, who is heading this organization. and our fourth task is to build a balanced world, and balanced universe, without empires. here we see representatives that we express our greetings to, and we truly appreciate. we have jesse jackson and gregory smith, who were sent by president obama.

welcome. we want and admire all of the peoples of the americas, but we want a relationship of true cooperation, respect, on an equal footing. and as commander chavez said, we want a world without empires, hegemonic nations, a world that respects international law, a world that is capable of coming together to cooperate, to peacefully coexist and be just, on an equal footing. why is this not possible? here we have the entire will of

the world, the political force of a world, and latin america has taken on the historic task of creating a new world, to join together in our diversity and say to the rest of the world, this is the latin america of the liberators. we're standing together. this world must change. commander, a fifth objective that i am going to read, because without this, it would be impossible to ensure the existence of mankind. and this fifth objective, ultimately, is the one that gives consistency to this legacy left to us by commander

hugo chavez. the fifth objective is very straightforward and we say this humbly and with our concern for mankind. commander hugo tshamba says as his fifth historic task, to contribute to the preservation of human life and the salvation and the preservation of the human species. no capitalism or socialism or any one of our religions is going to continue to survive if we are not able, with dark ideological, political, religious beliefs, to save our planet. we have to put an end to nuclear weapons, put an end to those forces of destruction of pollution of our rivers and seas and global warming. here is, commander. your legacy. several years ago, our president, when there were some

very pressing moments, or we would make a mistake, he would always tell us, "nicolas, nicolas, rafael, jorge, what are you going to do when i die?" and we always said, "please don't say that, commander." "what are you going to do when i die? how are you going to take care of things?" he left it all taken care of. now it is up to us to take on the challenge or not. we call on our people to take on the challenge.

what are we going to do when you depart, commander? you can now rest in peace. our prayers and our love of christ and our hearts wish you peace, in life and now in death. what are we going to do? we will continue to work together as a people, the armed forces with our constitution, with your political legacy, with your example, and through our love. we will continue to protect the poor. we will continue to feed those who are hungry.

it will continue to build on the education of our children, continued to build our great nation, continue to build peace, peace, and the peace of our continent, the piece of our people. commander, mission accomplished! president, commander, the battle continues! chavez lives! the struggle continues! long live hugo chavez! long live our people! long live unity and love! commander, we will continue to triumph, and one word to victory. >> next, the justice department on consumer protection, followed panels on debt relief fraud. >> on the next "washington journal" an analysis of the

february jobs numbers. unemployment dropping to 7.7% with 236,000 jobs added. then in the mccracken discusses efforts to engage on other issues. . after that, the new venture. this is live at 7:00 a.m. eastern on c-span. >> i believe the united states has many fantastic qualities. i do believe that many people have the possibility of pulling themselves up by the bootstraps. i think every year that is less and less probable. the united states especially in

its foreign policy which is what i have worked on for years and years is not a great nation. it is an interventionist state. it is aggressive militarily. we mess with other people's politics and ways that i cannot america -- imagines americans tolerating. can you imagine americans sitting there and thinking this is ok? somehow we still have a myth that people are thrilled glumly invade them. that is insane. i believe 99% of the time we create new enemies. >> she has made a career as an advocate for world peace. more with jodie williams sunday night at 8:00. >> the next, add the consumer protections summit. participants discuss lottery

scans, unlawful debt release and collection practices. >> good morning. am glad we are pointing out the geographical advantage. i am delighted to be here along with my colleagues who have worked to make the financial task force a success. four years ago the economic downturn unleashed a tsunami of fraud. the agency's represented they join forces to ensure that government works cooperatively.

to return whatever money we could find to consumers and to take them off the playing field once and for all. we have had great success of read the last four years. much remains to be done. today we will discuss some of the issues at the top of the agenda. i want to say a couple of words thanking the leadership of the task force. it was traded by attorney general holder. it is staffed by our colleagues of the department of justice. a modest guy has done a stellar job and his colleagues. they have done a fabulous job of keeping the task force moving. we owe them our collective thanks. i am also grateful for the inviable assistance provided by the legal services community and the advocacy groups that have

worked with the task force. they have played an important job identifying targets, finding us in getting the message out there. this is far together than the sum of the parts. it is my great pleasure to introduce the acting assistant attorney general. he has taken over and has done a really remarkable job. we are greatly appreciated to his leadership. >> thank you very much for that introduction and for hosting us he'll -- hosting us here.

i am pleased to attend this second annual summit as part of national protection week. i want to think the cochairs of the consumer protection working for making this event here possible today. the consumer protection working group is a part of the broader financial fraud task force which president obama created in 2009. the mission is to bring resources to bear from across the federal government and a partnership with our state counterparts to strengthen consumer protection, enhanced civil and criminal enforcement efforts, and to educate the public in an effort to prevent consumers from being victimized. i am particularly proud of our work to protect the health and safety of americans in combat

financial fraud. protecting consumers through the vigorous civil and criminal enforcement of federal consumer protection laws is the mission. we use all that we can at our disposal to confront challenges that threaten the economic security of our families. we have made this a centerpiece of the department's overall. consumer fraud affects ordinary people every day in can devastate victims. the target those who can least afford it. victims can lose more money. the cameras trust in the marketplace. there is the ability to take control of their finances in future.

they can feel a loss of security from haven't been taken advantage of. in the panels as morning he would hear about some of the work of the civil division as new work to protect consumers. you will hear about dietary supplement safety, debt released scans, paid a landing, lotteries scams and even romance scams. our work is much broader than this list. consumer fraud comes in many forms and our enforcement efforts reflect that. to give you some examples, we pursue cases against companies that manufacture food under unsanitary conditions and not mislead consumers about the safety of the drugs they market. we bring cases and dent -- against debt collection companies who try to collect debts that aren't even owed.

against those who import and try to sell half of his children toys. against companies that purport to sell business opportunities but instead the fraud victims. and against those who offer help to consumers facing debt or foreclosure but instead take their money and leave them worse off than when they started. the results demonstrate that we are making a difference. in 2012, the consumers protection branch working with attorneys offices across the country, secured over 1.9 $5 billion in criminal fines, restitution and saw 23 defendants convicted criminally. we have made many companies change their ways and deal fairly with consumers through injunctive relief we obtained from courts, internal corker reform renegotiate in sediments

and the deterrence that comes from vigorous enforcement. we know that enforcement alone is not enough. we cannot prosecute our way out of consumer fraud. whinnied collaboration, education, and our reach. -- we need collaboration, education and outreach. and with the assistance and knowledge of people here today, and additional discussions with experts and stakeholders, we will develop strategies and solutions for preventing and combating consumer fraud. this is michael and a goal of the department of justice and our partners -- this is my goal and the goal of the apartment of justice and our partners. although the attorney general was not able to be here today,

he asked me to share a video he prepared for this summit. thank you for coming today and joining in this vital discussion. now the video from the attorney general of the united states. [video clip]

>> good morning. i appreciate this opportunity to thank you for taking part in this summit and for your tireless work in preventing and combating several -- consumer fraud and insuring the financial security of united states. from consumer advocates to legal aid providers, dedicated public servants, each of the participants bring an important perspective to our fight against fraud. all of you are standing on the front lines of this struggle every day. in recent years as consumer fraud has grown and that the complexity and scope. , many have an impact firsthand. they can devastate individuals, families and entire communities. and you understand the importance of taking our anti- fraud efforts to a new level. thanks to leaders in this room,

we are just -- we are responding to these threats with resolve from crimes like debt believe scams and common tax fraud schemes, you're helping to raise awareness and educate ordinary citizens emblem will populations on how to avoid being victimized -- ordinary citizens and populations on how to avoid being victimized. you are rallying partners to help us fight back in bold and innovative ways. for my colleagues at every level of today's justice department, advancing this work and expanded on the record of progress we have established constitutes a top priority. i am proud to report our consumer protection efforts have never been stronger. or more effective. since 2009, the department has a

cure nearly $5.9 billion a in criminal fines, for furniture, restitution and civil disgorgement. we have obtained convictions against more than 100 individual trade last year alone, was secured nearly $2 billion in recoveries in cases involving the pharmaceutical, food safety in canada thought matters. we are employing every appropriate school, resources and authority to enhance our investigative and prosecutorial capabilities. alongside a host of a federal law enforcement officials, regulatory agencies and state and local partners, we are responding aggressively to financial and mortgage rescue brought collection schemes -- mortgage rescue at fault debt collection schemes.

all these achievements and build on the remarkable success of the president's financial fraud enforcement task force which has enabled us to file nearly 10,000 financial fraud cases against nearly 15,000 offenders. including more than 2,900 and mortgage fraud defendants. we saw more than $5 billion in damages for alleged, but that ghost of a heart of the recent economic. economic moving forward, will continue to exchange ideas and strengthening cooperation between allies across the country to better protect americans from all walks of life. fully addressing the threat consumers face is not something the justice department will be able to do on its own. each of you will always have able to display in defending the

interests of consumers and insuring the integrity of our marketplace. we need your help. we need your perspectives and expertise and talent and determination. that is what consumer national protection week is all about my colleagues and i are counting on your assistance and your leadership. american consumers are depending on your thoughtful contributions. i am looking for to all that we will accomplish together as we carry this court into the future. thank you want to get all that you do and keep up the great work. i wish you and most productive summit. you a most productive summit. >> next we will hear of the active director of the consumer bureau of federal trade. >> it is an odd experience to be

introduced by the former director as the acting director. i am honored to be here today representing the t -- ftc. it is in a great experience for all of us. it has brought to bear some important resources. i also wanted thank georgetown law school for hosting this conference. it is a great way to cap national consumer protection week. it is an annual event that involves many partners from throughout the united states and who get together and spend a week emphasizing the importance for the united states and consumers of educating and focusing on consumer protection issues. i will be back later to talk about more specific things but i want to talk briefly about what

consumer protection means. when you think of law enforcement, you may think of a property crime. a place where a crime has occurred. there may be witnesses at the scene. that is the kind of thing you may see on tv cop show. consumer protection law enforcement is nothing like that. it involves scams that can cover the globe. it involves perpetrators who can be far removed from the victims. it involves victims who relocated throughout the world. how you deal with that kind of problem? and you cannot solve in an hour. you need to partner with many individuals and people,, all of whom have a piece of the information you need. you need to employ all the tools at your disposal to try to put together a solid case that

brings together victims and the circumstances and identify partners of the stammers -- of the scammers. that is what this is all about. binding together and bring to bear all the tools and intelligence and applying it in a way that protects consumers and businesses from farud schemes. we talk about it involving law- enforcement, regulation, and education. all three of those are important but the fourth leg of this stool is partnerships. that is what this task force is all about. that is why it has been so important to be a part of it and

we are grateful. with that, i will come back to you later but i will now turn you over to the cfpb. >> thanks, chuck and thank you all for being here. i am the enforcement director at the cfpb. it is the new federal agency that has been established and in the aftermath of the financial meltdown to attempt to bring a focused attention on issues associated with financial services and products and to work to protect both consumers and on this businesses that play by the rules in the consumer financial marketplace. we do that working in conduction with colleagues throughout the federal government and state government. we work in close conjunction

with our colleagues of the justice department's, the ftc and the department of education, veterans affairs but also with state regulatory agencies working together to bring the best possible service recant. -- service we can. the best i can do is to remind folks of some remarks are directed midwest peake -- director made last week. 1 with the area of deceptive marketing practices. -- one is the area of deceptive marketing practices. it has resulted in over $400 million being returned to consumers who had been deceived in the purchase of a credit-card

at on products. we have also been concerned about mortgage lender release scams -- scamsand debt relief scams. the director talked-about debt traps. they have low income but . high but they elad -- they have low income but high interest. that gets consumers in deeper trouble. a third area is dead end. those places in the consumer finance the marketplace where consumers are left without a choice. there are many areas here that unlike most consumer transactions, consumers denied it to pick who they do business with. when there is a debt collector, they do not get to choose to their debt collector is.

when there is a credit reporting agency affecting their life, they do not get to choose who the agency is. did they do not have the normal power to walk away and say i do not like the way you're doing business with me. when the consumer is not empowered in that way, we are more concerned about whether the of being properly treated and whether the law is being followed. the fourth area was discriminatory activity. loans or the absence of loans are being made based upon improper discriminatory basis -- race, gender, age. we together with our colleagues will continue to work on issues of deceptive marketing, debt traps, dead ends and discriminatory lending to bring more satisfactory results for consumers. throughout consumers

we thank georgetown law school and that justice department for putting this together. this is an important piece of the work we do each year. thank you very much. >> good morning. david, it is terrific to see you again. what events like today proves more than anything else is that we in government can accomplish a lot more when we work together. together is a word that pretty much everyone of the speakers who have been up here today have emphasized. that is the essence of the financial fraud enforcement task force. the leaders of the consumer protection working group here today and others who cannot be here all share a unity of

purpose. and it, resolve which is to protect the american consumers -- a nd a common resolve, which is to protect american consumers. they are dedicated to working together to achieve justice in all of its forms, whether it is preventing the fraud or protecting the victims of these fraudulent debt activities. we have done quite a lot in -- quite a lot and are continuing to do a lot. whether it is summits like these or through a robust initiative looking at third-party payment processors in the financial institutions that would facilitate fraud schemes from occurring or protecting service members and their families from becoming victims of financial fraud to disseminating took

kits -- tool kits. or looking at the payday lending industry. we are all committed to working together. thank you all or appearing here today and being a part of this summit. thank you to george unit -- part-time university for hosting -- thank you to georgetown university for hosting. i hope you all enjoy the summit. [applause] >> at panelists talked about lottery and telemarketing schemes and prosecuting fraud cases. this is 50 minutes.

>> good morning. i'm an assistant director at the federal trade commission. at the next panel will discuss several schemes that target consumers in financial distress, including debt relief schemes, and some online payday lending schemes. our first panel was focused on lottery scams. lottery scam spray on elderly and other potentially vulnerable individuals -- loterry scams pray on elderly and other potentially vulnerable individuals. romance scams involve

fraudsters to contact people, create an emotional bond and use the strong emotional ties to convince their victims to send ore wire money to them. the panel of experts we have assembled is uniquely qualified to discuss these fraud scams and educate the public how to not fall prey to these scams. panel include law-enforcement, federal prosecutors and nonprofit and government leaders dedicated to protecting individuals and consumers from deceptive and fraudulent practices. i will briefly introduce the panel the label get into the discussion. our first panel member is gregory campbell, and the united states postal inspector. he is the deputy chief inspector of the western field offices.

he is responsible for the management of nine field divisions throughout the western united states. duties include providing strategic planning, program guidance and policy interpretation for criminal and security programs. deputy chief campbell has earned his ph.d. in management from walden university. he has a master's in behavioral science and his b a in sociology from california state university dominguez hills. chuck who you heard from this morning is the acting director of cfpb. he served as the deputy director in the bureau of consumer protection. and was director of the northwest regional office of ftc where he led efforts involving

a wide variety of antitrust and consumer protection issues. he joined the ftc in 1989. he is a graduate of whitman c ollege. john rush is deputy chief of strategy and policy at the u.s. department of justice. he co-chairs the chairsmass fraud working group. he is a graduate of the university of virginia law school. he specializes in the prosecution a fine -- of financial institutions involved

in fraud and money-laundering as well as financial institutions that fail to maintain effective anti money-laundering programs or violate u.s. economic sanctions. prior to joining the section, he was in ausa in arizona and is a graduate of northwestern university. john braile joined the national consumers league in september 2008 has focused at the national consumers league is on advocating for stronger consumer protection before congress and federal agencies on issues related to telecommunications and other consumer concerns. he earned his be a at george mason university -- his b.a. at george mason.

inspector campbell, the postal inspection service has been involved in combating lottery fraud from jamaica. how is this fraud committed and what is the inspection service doing to compact -- to combat this? >> thank you. yes, the inspection service has been involved in these types of scams. since 2009, the polls for inspection service has been a part of a task force initiated by the department of homeland security called jolt. as a result, it focuses on investigating crimes that involve lottery scams. individuals, predominantly older

citizens, are contacted via the internet, phone or mail, and told they have won some type of price. -- type of prize,. . they are told to receive their feet, -- to receive their prize, they have to pay a tax. the payment as always -- the price is always one cash payment away. that is how the operate. >> what are you doing to investigate to combat this crime? >> we had 18 field offices. all offices have been working fraud scams for years. the scams have become more complex and organized.

it has offered scammers an opportunity to be strategic. what we're doing we are working cases domestically and by an arresting as many criminals as we can. we also have agents working in jamaica and with law enforcement in jamaica to provide intelligence to help them do their job better. it is a multifaceted approach. when you think of these scams, you think it is just a criminal justice issue. but it is not a . -- it is not. we are specifically looking at the enforcement side. >> you mentioned the postal inspection service has

individuals working in jamaica now. can you talk about that? >> we do have resources working in jamaica. we are leveraging our resources corning with other agencies -- and our resources, partnering with other agencies. the provide intelligence to law enforcement officials in jamaica to help them do their job better. they have to enforce the laws there but we try to help partner and provide them the intelligence to do their job better. we work with to make a customs and united states embassy in jamaica. we have helped jamaica, off with we have helped come up wi

jamaica, up -- come up with laws. we are trying to work with jamaican authorities to help them do their job better and be more successful. this is not just an issue in jamaica. this is also an issue in west africa, the u.k., the netherlands. these types of scams originate from those countries as well. >> there are postal facilities in every city around the country and clerks that help people getting stamps and other things including money orders. are money orders one of the means the frotteurs -- the consumer protection working group fraudsters -- the

fraudsters use? >> postal money orders i acts one means of -- is one means of getting money but it also asked for cash or pre pai creditd cards. we have flyers that are out for our postal customers to educate them on how not to become a victim. we're not just focusing on the elderly victims but on the care givers. to educate them on what to do

when their family members become victims of these types of scams. education is a key component. we are educating not only employees but our postal customers. >> thank you. i would now like to turn to chueck harwood. he is the acting director of the bureau of consumer protection at the ftc. i understand the ftc has a system to collect information from individuals who believe they have been scammed or think contacted by aeen scammer. can you talk about that system and how those contacts are used to fight this type of fraud? >> sure. thank you for letting me talk

about every source that deserves more promotion than what it gets. when i talked earlier, consumer protection law violations involve people who facilitate oftentimes to all the world. the perpetrators may be in jamaica and maybe frauding people summer else in the world. evidence is often scattered to out the world. -- scattered throughout the world. the consumer central network brings together the information to make it possible for law enforcement agencies to more effectively collect information and use it in consumer protection efforts. it is a system that is

available to 2000 law enforcement agencies. we asked consumers to submit complaints about their experiences. they can do that through ftc.gov directly. they can also call us. we also get many complaints from our partner agencies. the u.s. postal inspection service, we get many complaint there every year. cfpb gives us mkany complaints -- gives us many complaints. we get complaints from the department of justice and the better business zeros -- bureaus around the country.

also a number of private sector organizations and states. all the complaints are made available to the agency's. in 2012, we collected 2 million consumer complaints in one year. hal those complaints are fraudulent -- half those complaints are fraudulent. it is a fabulous resource. and is free to loss for the -- free to law enforcement agencies. we were left to see more people contribute complaints.

this is the summary report be submitted this year. you can go on the ftc website and see over 100 pages of an affirmation talking about the kind of complaints received broken down by state. >> if you or a loved one have been contacted by a fraudster, ftc.govgo tho the website and fill out a form. are you seeing with respect to these millions of complaints any trends in the type of fraudulent activity we are talking about this morning? >> yes, we are. what we have seen is an increase

in complaints involving jamaican companies. in 2007, we received only about 20,000 complains. in 2012, that number was almost 32,000 dairy -- was almost 42,000. in terms of the kinds of complaints, the age range -- lf are over 70 years old. in terms of losses, consumers reported in 2012 $24 million in losses. many consumers cannot tell us

how much they have lost a . most of the people who complain about jamaican scams are complaining about prizes and lotteries. most are using wire related mechanisms. they are wiring money many are assisted with a price scheme -- are associated with a prize scheme. >> the consumer sentinel receives complaints about more than just a lottery brought. >> right. this past year we began to see a complaint about romance schemes.

about 5% of complaint identified --12 involved postrire posture scams. they are somebody out to get your money. >> thank you. we will come back to you about how access to the system is made available to law-enforcement and how law enforcement uses the comments and complaints. a want to turn to jonathan. he is an expert on research into these types of fraud, to ask about research with respect to in these types of scams. >> thank you. one of the king's law enforcement has lacked is an

understanding of how prevalent these types of consumer scams can be. many times consumers did not report. partly because of embarrassment given the amount of money they have paid out. perhaps because they feel some sensitivity about what will happen if their adult children or rather than el learned how much they lost. -- rather than learn how much they lost. tomblin like to hundred thousand residents of the u.k. have been victimized -- something like

200,000 residents of the u.k. have been victimized by romance scams. lottery scams, moments scams -- it seems clear to law enforcement that these types of scams are being targeted at the global consumer marketplace. it is one of the issues that concerns agencies and a growing number of investigators and police and prosecution services around the world. cox has the internet made these scams easier? >> in a word, yes.

we continue to see many instances where cameras are using traditional methods -- where scammers are using traditional methods from outside the united states into the united states. there is no question. aat we're looking at involves substantial exploitation of the internet. it saves time and money for the scarce and instead of taking the time to copy and mail out solicitations. now it cosets you -- costs you nothing to scam the world.

unlike a traditional postal address, one has no idea in responding to an e-mail, where that person who sent the e-mail literally is. that is a feature of the internet that can be turned to the scammer's advantage if they said i am living in countries -- in country x and i want to establish a romantic relationship with you. that means it is more challenging for law enforcement to track down true points of origins and do things that can have . a. >> is it fair to say --

that can have impact. >> is it fair to say [indiscernible] >> other tools available for law enforcement to get underneath that? >> absolutely. criminal, civil divisions were closely -- work closely. we do have tools that allow us to track down these schemes and take action. one of the keys is doing what we can to ensure more timely reporting live victims. people wait months or even a year more before the report these types of schemes.

it does become more difficult for us to track something down. the sooner we know, we can take immediate steps to try to stop the money from going out or have the opportunity to trace that. these schemes have global reach. we also need to be more to share information. we cannot prosecute our way out of these types of consumer schemes. one of the ways to adjust that is by working with law- enforcement to correct the relevant intelligence. i find out what everyone knows about these types of scams -- to find out what everyone knows

about these scams. >> i would now like to turn to john with the national consumers league. the web site is broad.org. can you describe that for us? >> fraud.org is the outgrowth of more than 20 years of consumer advocacy. it was an effort started through the alliance against fraud. the lines are together -- the allaince brought together stakeholders to talk about

emerging issues in fraud. fraud.org is an outgrowth of that. it was launched in the 1990's in response to victims of telemarketing schemes. we were able to have one of the first hot line where consumers could call in a report being victims of scams. as the internet has become the mode of choice for scammers, fraud.org has become a way for consumers to come to a trust organization and submit complaints and education about different kinds of scams. we have articles on the side. everything from romance scams to lottery scams to mortgage scams,

you name it. we recently re-launched the site. all the information has been reorganized to make it easy in searchable for consumers to find. it was important to us that all of our information was easily share ribble. -- was easily shareable. consumers are reticent to report scams. they are either embarrassed by how much they are lost or were about what their kids are going to do. sometimes the consumers may action be involved in the scheme, helping some how to find new leads for other stammers -- for other scammers.

the latest is that only 26% of americans trust in government. some consumers may not want to act with a government agency. we have been around since 1899. we have a great historical record to a working with consumers. we review complaints where the consumer seems to be in imminent danger of sending money to a scam artist to directly contact them and provide them counseling. we also send complaints about. we have a network of more than 90 federal, state, local and international offices.

the ftc consumer database is one of those we have contributed to for a number of years. out of that date, we produce reports, look at trends. we rely on partners in spotting trends that help us decided what to focus on in our initiatives. >> thank you. i want to turn to cry. you are a federal prosecutor in the criminal division of the department of justice to read one common method that fraudsters use is wire transfer agencies. you recently worked on a case involving money gram. could you describe the allegations and said that case and how was result? >> money gram is an excellent example of the collaboration

biya been talking about. we work closely with the ftc. command as " the inspectors who work lead investigators on the case. -- i had to great postal wor kers who lead -- who were lead to investigators on the case. what these fraudsters do after they find their victims, they still need to find a way to get money anonymously. what we have seen increasingly is wire transfers. banks tend to require more

information. these money services businesses do not. you basically show up with cash. money grams are in just about every walmart. there are 270,000 locations worldwide. you fill out a form and money is available for pick up within 10 days. so it is fast. what these fraudsters did was they realized it was relatively easy for them to corrupt some of these agents, some of the people out -- offered the outlets. money gram had ppor due -- poor due . t. he fraudsters themselves would

open money gram outlets. this happened over a number of years. many consumers complaint directly to money gram. they're fraught department collected this information and they started to see a trend. certain agents had high levels of fraud. the fall department recommended they be terminated. -- the fraud department recommended they be terminated. many of the bat outlets were not close. -- of the bad outlets were not

closed. the fraud was allowed to perpetrate for many years. at this point, could have brought charges against 34 milligram agents -- we have brought charges against 34 money gram agents. they admitted to creating and abetting fraud. they did not have the proper systems in place. they agreed to completely overhaul the way they were doing business to prevent this from happening in the future. and take extra steps to protect consumers. they agreed to pay $100 million in conjunction with the postal service. we are working to give that back

to victims. anyone here today, anyone watching, if you know of someone who may have been evicted -- who may have been a victim, we set caught up a hotline. call, and leave your information. we are going to the process now and our hope is to return as much of this money as possible to the victims. >> thank you. inspector campbell, in addition to the work postal inspection surface dust to investigate and combat lottery fatah, the postal service has started a public- service campaign -- lottery fraud, the postal service has started a public-service campaign. [video clip] -- >> kabul said the video out for

you. it is about the care giver -- ir you. it is about a caregiver to try to convince her mother not to continue to give money. >> we will try that in the back for a moment. this video is about a minute long. [video clip] >> i think you hate me. >> i cannot hate you. what are you going to tell me. you will never what? >> send any more money out. >> and today is january 27. >> okay. i swear i will not send any more money out.

>> great. i would love that to happen. when you get these calls from him jamaica -- from jamaica, you should put the phone down. >> okay but i swear i am not going to send amy -- any more money out. i think you hartte me. >> i don't hate you. >> inspector campbell, can you talk about this video and the campaign in general? >> and that the my history as a postal -- in my history as a postal inspector, one of my high levels working with jonathan lash and taking a team of inspectors to nigeria.

the other highlight took place yesterday. in our partnership of working with aarp, we have sent out a postcard mailings to over 25 million homes. we did not just randomly send them out. we used data from our partners here to look at residents over 70 years old. then to look to see where they had caregivers in a close proximity. yesterday, working with aarp, a person called that fraud fighter hotline and said they were holding the card in their hand

and they received a call from jamaica. she told the person i have this card in my hand that says this is a scam and she hung up. that is what this is all about. what's going to help this problem is to educate not only the elderly individuals but also caregivers. when sonia came, it was already too late. just yesterday, wekept somebody from becoming a victim -- wekept somebody from becoming a victim. that could be my mother, your grandmother. that is a lot to me. what we're doing is we put these pamphlets in over 30,000 retail

outlets. the have a consumer alert news network -- we have a consumer alert news network and are doing consumer awareness and media alerts. we are working weaarp -- we are working with aarp to attack this problem. >> chuck, from your perspective, what should an elderly person or a child of an elderly person or calvin -- or care giver do if these calls start coming? we should note the scammers are

persistent. >> there are a variety of things anyone should do. if they think a parent is getting these calls, they should engage in conversation. you can do your own research. make that research note to your parents and loved ones. and there is information online about lotteries and romance scams. all that and permission is available at ftc.gov. there are clear and concise terms. it helps you. why you're getting information, why not get it for your

neighbors and friends as well? it is much more meaningful if a friend or neighbor talks to you or had a senior community center. if you're not into downloading, we can mail it to you for free. you can take it with you to a consumer center or a senior center or other center and talk to them about it. you can become the neighborhood expert on how to combat fraud. join us in our efforts. you can prevent lottery fraud. >> law enforcement is still key. if you believe that you have been a victim or a friend or neighbor, please reported. report to the ftc.

there are many places. you can forward it to your local attorney general's office. many that will be reported to us. take the time to report it. let us know about the problem. >> thank you. i like to turn to jonathan and craig from the criminal division in working with our office at the consumer protection branch. yes, we have heard a number of panelists a that we can prosecute or rest ourselves out of this problem, but there are activities going on. law enforcement activity to prosecute people that are identified. is that a fair statement? >> absolutely.

we have had quick success in dealing with different types of fraud schemes, even when based in countries like the netherlands or coaster rica. we and partners have built a close working relationship. those relationship are good for us to have success in tracking people down. we have been able to have multiple individuals expedite foreign countries where they thought they were safe and were brought to the united states to stand trial to typically plead guilty to criminal charges for stock -- criminal charges. the sooner that we find out for consumers, that there is a scammer that is hurting them or some and they care about, the quicker that law enforcement can reenact -- can react to that.

the more we can work in those jurisdictions where peers those scams are -- where it appears those scams are based. one of the encouraging signs we have seen is that more and more countries like nigeria, ghana, spain, and other areas are not only looking to the united states to take action, but are initiating action on their own and bringing their own criminal charges. we share information and support. it is that mutual galatian ship -- it is that mutual relationship that can have a meaningful impact in sending a strong message to the public that we are capable of and prosecuting these kinds of cases successfully. we are hoping it sends a message that we can regardless

of where they are based track them down. >> greg, i want to turn to you about the money gram cases. if money gram does not abide by that agreement, what is the result in that matter? >> it goes perfectly with what we are talking about. it is important to hold these individual fraudsters behind bars. while working with these gatekeepers, in our prosecution , we require them to take steps that not only hold them accountable for what they did, but can help prevent these things in the future. that is what we have done in money gram. we hold them accountable. we made them get rid of the that agents. we also made them do a number of things going forward that will

prevent this. it is called an anti-fraud alert system. it is based on information they are receiving from us. their sophisticated models that can attempt to detect fraud. they see wire transaction from jamaica. they will stop that and call the victim. they will say -- they will try to get details on it. if it sounds like a fraud, they stop it. that system has prevented over $100 million in fraud. we have required money gram -- these are international crimes. each country has a different standard for money laundering. we make sure that they apply to u.s. standards in all of the locations they have.

if you are operating a money gram in jamaica, you have to follow u.s. money-laundering fraud standards. that helps dealing with things. we recognize the importance of the consumer. we require money gram to provide the ftc with every complaint they received worldwide. that way they are aware and they can help law enforcement to out the world and be on top of these things. that is a challenge in this case. >> i would like to conclude by turning to john. what is your organization doing to educate consumers? you mentioned the hotline and contacting people. >> one of the things we will be working on in the coming months

and years is trying to identify ways that we can reach consumers when they are at a decision point. there is a perfect example of someone getting the call from a scammer while holding a postcard about the scam in their hand. that is exactly the type of success we want to replicate. we want to make sure that is skilled. we are looking for opportunities to use data like the ftc in a way that makes it useful to consumers. the law enforcement database. many agencies are pulling data from it. we want to see if there are ways to make the data available to consumers, if not directly, so they can build tools on top of that area.

i think we are looking for ways that we might be able to use data from other sources around the web to help build these types of tools. for example, we can have complaint boards across the internet. it is proliferating where consumers go to post complaints about legitimate companies. there are a few about fraud. law enforcement and people who want to build tools should have access as well. we are looking through our education on consumer it is fraud alert and we see trends in our own data. we'll have content available about new scams. we shut down one scam.

another one would pop up. it is the whack a mole problem. having the ability to react to that in a more nimble way is important. >> thank you. john, john, craig, you have passed along some extremely valuable information to date. we appreciate your participation in the panel. >> thank you. [applause] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2013] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] >> next fraud and what consumers can do to protect themselves. this includes speakers from the federal trade commission and the consumer protection bureau erie and this is about 40 minutes. -- protection bureau. this is about 40 minutes.

>> good morning. i'm an assistant director at the federal trade commission. at the next panel will discuss several schemes that target consumers in financial distress, including debt relief schemes, and some online payday lending schemes. in many ways, there is no real common thread between all of the schemes other than a target consumers who are in financial distress, but for small subset of consumers looking for payday loans, they could run across all three issues. very briefly, my background, and then i will introduced east of-- each of the panelists, and then we will jump at the panel discussion, i have been with the federal trade commission over 20 years. i have done a telemarketing fraud litigation, i have and the last 12 years been supervising federal court litigation dealing with all sorts of different

schemes, including mortgage relief scams, debt relief scams, payday lending issues, as well as many other issues that deal with consumers who are in financial distress. first, we will have jeff discussed debt relief scams. any consumer who is facing mounting unsecured debt is looking for ways to lower that debt or settle that, there are a number of schemes out there that try to take advantage of these financially distressed consumers. jeff will talk about at least some of those types of schemes, and then after that we'll have some questions and answers to pull out some of the other variations of that scheme. jeff is at the consumer financial protection bureau. he joined in july 2011. he is the assistant litigation deputy for field litigation in the enforcement shop.

before joining cfpb, he was at the u.s. department of justice where he defended the u.s. court litigation, including suits seeking to hold the government liable for losses resulting from hurricane katrina and bernie madoff's ponzi scheme. before that, he was an assistant deputy attorney at miami dade county, and he clerked for the hon. james kean in the southern district of florida. after jeff, johnson will discuss payday lenders. there is no national user recap for payday loans, so what she will focus on is not an issue a lot of states are concerned about regarding user recaps, but instead some of the federal consumer protection issues focusing on how loans are

marketed and whether the terms and conditions of the loans or whether the loans will automatically roll over are being clearly and commonly disclose to consumers who are anxious to take out a payday loan. lashawn johnson is with the federal trade commission. most recently, she has focused on issues related to the lending and debt collection practices of online paid lenders as related to native american tribes. prior to joining ftc, she was with the washington, d.c. law firm. she reached her b.a. with honors from howard university and graduate from the university of berkeley school of law. finally, we will turn to katey worthman, who will discuss what we have coined phantom debt

collectors. the scams in some cases are based overseas. they call consumers and aggressively assert the consumers owe them for a payday loan. in many cases, in most cases, there is no real debt or these collectors have no authority to collect on any payday loan these consumers may have taken out. in fact, these are really no more than shakedowns. katey is also an attorney with the division of financial practices. she has worked on cases involving debt collection, unfair misconduct under the fair lending laws. she came to the ftc first in 2006 after working at a law firm and clerking in the eastern district of pennsylvania. jeff, i will first turn and over to you to talk about debt relief scams and specifically you want to talk about the cases you brought against a debt relief

scheme? >> yes, the case i want to talk about is one of the first that the bureau brought to federal court late last year against an entity called payday loan debt solutions. and as the name some what implies, this company purported to help consumers settle their payday debts that they could no longer afford to make payments on. i will talk about this case because some of the characteristics that were present in this case are common and present in many debt relief schemes. although there are different varieties and for all levels of wrongdoing, some are outright scams were these companies prey on people, take money with never the intent to provide a debt relief service.

then there are others where companies do things that harm or injured consumers, although they may not rise to the level of fraud or scam. but still they cause substantial harm to consumers, and so we identified this company as one that was injuring consumers, primarily through the arrangement that it had. again, this is a common practice even after the ftc possible amendments to the telemarketing sales rule in 2010, which bandit advanced fees and debt relief. -- which banned advanced fees and debt relief. even after that, we still see instances where companies charge these advanced fees, and often consumers are not aware they are being charged these, and part of that is the result of the way that these companies do business. the model is frequently like this.

there is an internet presence, some sort of advertisement. someone may go to the internet, having problems making payments on their payday loans. they may click and not "payday loan debt," and a company like this pops up. the consumer will call the company and that begins the relationship. and i want to say a word about these victims, because it is something that we heard earlier today. these are people who are conscientious, who are bothered by the fact they cannot make payments on their debts. there are people who have debts to don't care, and probably don't try to take any action themselves to solve the problem. but the people who are most, i guess, a vulnerable to something like this are people who actually care about this. and then you also see a lot of the same. we heard earlier about victims

of these types of arrangements who are ashamed. they are ashamed that they have racked up a debt they cannot afford to pay, and then they have fallen victim to this practice. so these people really take to heart the fact that cannot but these payments are looking for solutions, and unfortunately sometimes they find debt relief service providers who did not comply with the law. the first thing these debt relief service providers often do is they tell the consumers to stop paying their creditors. oftentimes they will tell they want the debt to ripen so the creditor is more amenable to settling the debt. of course, when consumers stop paying the debt, whether payday or credit card debts, there are consequences to that. oftentimes these consumers are

how to by creditors. sometimes their debts are turned over to collectors and they are subjected to harassment in the context of collecting that debt. and often, consumers cannot stand that any more, so they try to drop out of a program they have gotten into. which would be fine if the companies they were dealing with were complying with the ftc's rule, because the rule that bans advanced fees was meant to alter the relationship between the consumers and companies so the risk of not completing a program would fall on the company, not the consumer. the consumer should be able to enter into these arrangements and drop out at any time and receive a refund of all of the money they have contributed to

their debt relief program and walk away unharmed. when a company charges an advance fee, it alters that risk. now the risk is on the consumer to complete the program. when the consumer does not complete the program, they lose the money they paid in forward fees to the debt relief service provider. and then, of course, that disrupts the whole incentive in that if companies are abiding by the advanced feet ban, they have -- fee ban, they have incentives only to general consumers who will complete the program, because they will only be paid when the consumer's debts are resolved. if they are permitted to take advanced fees, when they do take advanced fees, their incentive is to enroll consumers who will not complete the program. because once they collect the fees they are due under the arrangement, they would rather it cannot perform any work. so once they have collected their fee, and there is nothing more to get from the consumer,

their incentive is to have the consumer drop out. so you will find where these advance fees are present, you'll have often situations where consumers are enrolled in programs -- that is particularly true with respect to credit card debt. often, the debt relief credit card programs consumers enroll in take three years, for years to complete, and consumers may or may not be told that when they enroll in these programs, but if they enroll in a program that takes four years to complete and every month they are sending money to the debt relief company or to a payment processor that is acting as an intermediary between the consumer and the debt relief company, if they cannot complete the program and they're being charged advanced fees, they will be harmed. and that was the case that we found with the payday loan debt solution. it was a company that had been charging advanced fees.

hundreds of consumers it had been dealing with had none of those services provided whatsoever, get there were paid thousands of dollars in fees. we were able to end that for those consumers. so, like i said, these fees are not the only unlawful act. there has been good job being done in action being brought against this. they are taking very large sums of money, especially for consumers to have very high credit card debt. that is a very common scheme or unlawful act. this model of signing consumers

for the program that they largely often cannot afford and sometimes provides no benefit to them is also still a big problem. >> jeff, one of the things i have learned working at the ftc is that often times a successful scam will take a kernel of truth and expand on that. the kernel of truth here is that there are credit card companies that will negotiate down the debt. correct? >> there are some, yes. >> how can consumers when they hear this and i've heard on the radio or seen on the internet that they have heard that this happens, how can they recognize a company that is legitimately offering something versus someone to what you're

discussing? >> the consumer can contact their creditor. call the credit card company. explain your having problems. you can attempt yourself to obtain a payment plan that would allow you to resolve your debt or lease make progress toward solving your debt. beyond that, there are obvious red flags that if consumers were aware of, they might be able to avoid debt relief service providers -. any time a debt relief service provider tells a consumer that you have to pay a fee up front, that should be a red flag. it ought to be a clue to stay away from that company.

there is a lot of information available on the internet publicly. consumers can go on the internet and do a google search. you can search for the word complaint. you'll find some of the worst players in this field. people will often voice complaints on the internet. consumers can find that. a lot of states regulate this for debt release service providers. consumers can look to their state. they can learn whether there are complaints with any of the companies. there is a case that i talk about. they were parallel claims asserting violations of state laws. these are companies that were

doing business with consumers in various states, but had no license in those states. with respect to a couple of states, they were violating state laws. consumers can check with their states. if the debt relief service provider makes a guarantee or someone says i can reduce your debt by 30%, 40%, 60%, they cannot guarantee that. some creditors will deal with debt relief service providers and others will not. some will not compromise the amount that a consumer owes a creditor. any time someone says they are guaranteeing a result, that is a red flag. >> thank you. we can spend another hour on relief scams, but we have a lot to cover. lashawn talk about online payday

lending and consumer protection issues with regard to how these are being marketed and what happens after a consumer has taken out an online payday loan. >> what happens when consumer cannot pay their debt, when they take these payday loans online -- we all shop online. these particular individuals are online and search for a payday loan. they will get a list that comes up. sitting at their house or wherever they are on their laptop, maybe sipping a cup of coffee, they can enter in the information and tell them how much money they want loan to them. moneyl have that automatically deposited into their account. that sounds great. however, the nightmare begins.

what the ftc has done is there are practices. what happens is that they learn about terms that they were not aware of. they learned that the consumer -- in 2010, the ftc has been monitoring debt collection activities. there are moving forms that federal agencies can use. they would send it out to consumers and the players and tell them the consumer of the debt. based upon the debt collection act -- unfortunately, smaller

companies have honored that. there are perhaps larger companies who have said no and -- moved on.ar it now they are further in the hole. now they can garnish their wages. they have found a way. these are federal violations. after that, there was another case in 2011 regarding practices. they decided to associate

themselves with someone who was a member. the owner for the defendant belongs to a certain tribe. the corporate entity that he used to offer the payday loan were incorporated by the state. they were state entity. in the state action, he is arguing that they cannot go after him because he is entitled. when you figure that one out, let me know. what happened here is that this particular entity is that tribal law authorizes them to garnish wages. but the person to live in another state. of course, we brought an action against them. there was also known tonic signature when they signed for the loan.

-- electronic signature when they signed for the loan. you have to sign in say i give permission to take money out of my loan. that is credit on someone agreeing. the other thing was there were some particular employers that were garnish and these wages. the ftc try to stop that. they basically transacted a business over the phone. there is no right for them to defend its actions. that particular case is still pending. there was a summary judgment on

another great in 2012 -- there was a summary judgment on that. in 2012, they were allegedly owned by entities that were charge and nationally recognized company. they're not really disclosing to the consumer how much they will have to take out. basically what happens is the consumer takes out a loan and they tell them it will eat this amount plus some unspecified -- they will take out this amount plus some specified -- unspecified fees. what happens when that time comes, they will basically take out the interest in fees and rollover the loan. the consumer and basically never pays a principal. they are paying the interest.

another thing that they do is they have been threatening consumers that they will sue them are go after them if they do not pay their debt. and one account is that, that is not us. that was my colleague. things that we want consumers to be aware of is that wage orangemen is an issue. -- carnage is in -- garnage is an issue. they need to tell you can rarely what the terms -- clearly what the terms are. they should not disclose that debt to a third party or anyone else. even though you have taken on a long and have gotten into a tight spot, the consumer still

has rights. to protect those rights. -- we want to protect those rights. >> what happens if the consumer receives a carnage notice? what should they do? >> they can go to the hr department of their employer. they can talk to them about basically one person saying your employee owes me a debt. if that doesn't resolve the issue, you might have to get a lawyer. protect your rights. know so we can be aware of what the different entities are doing. >> you can file a complaint with the ftc rate you can call toll- free.

one 800 -- ftc -- help. c-help.t or go online ftc.gov. what are the other red flags that consumer should look at? especially on the front end of deciding if they want to take out an online payday loan? >> you should be able to tell whatever information they give you on the website like how much money it will cost you and tao it will be paid back. if you cannot figure that out from reading, that is a red flag. something is there that is not very clear. stuff like the rollover issue. you will never be taking the principal, only the interest. another thing, if you see

something in your loan agreement that the entities are owned by the native american tribe, look at what state action can be taken on your behalf. ideally, you could not take out this loan. you want to be able to do adjustments in a simple internet search. you'll be amazed at how many complaints are out there. you can call your state's attorney general office. you will learn that there are complaint. it can save you harm. >> thank you goo. we will move on to katie. in many cases, some try to collect unelected payday loans. >> fenton debt collectors are scammers -- phantom debt

collectors are scammers. they contact consumers in order to collect money that the consumers either do not owe her that the scam artist have no authority -- do not owe or that the scam artist has no authority to collect goo stop they are engaging in a egregious actresses to still money from consumers. one case was ftc versus a company. in this situation, the consumer had either previously taken out payday loans or had applied for payday loans or even just inquired about it. they were contacted by callers who would sometimes have foreign accents. sometimes officials who would come and arrest them and take them to jail because they owed money.

unless it was paid, they would be arrested and put in jail. when consumer was threatened. a wife received a call. she was told that the resume warned out for her husband. outhat there was a war irant for her husband and they were on their way to pick them up to work unless they paid the money. they also elected a lawsuit saying -- using abusive language. these are consumers that perhaps are behind in debt. they might have taken out a payday loan. they are confused. i do not know. when they have a caller that threatens to arrest them, they think maybe if i just pay, it will go away. consumers have paid. thousands of dollars.

these are consumers that are in financial stress. they do not have money lying around to pay t. perhaps there is outstanding debt. maybe it is not being paid to the legitimate creditors. a complaint -- there were violations of the ftc. last year, the federal court entered into a settlement. the agreement included a ban against collection for this particular entity. these are not just -- they can be large operations during another case and -- they can be large operations. another case involved more than 2.7 million calls.

to over 600,000 phone numbers. in less than two years, the defendant largely collected millions of dollars from consumers erie it is is money consumers did not owe. they were threatened and harassed. it sometimes involve certain behavior. the ceo of the company was charged with a criminal count of buyers and fraud. -- wires adn fnd fraud. some people have inquired about payday loans. sometimes it is about old credit card debt that people are being harassed about. other kinds of debt. calling and saying that they have committed tax fraud.

it is a shakedown scam. one thing that is consistent is that they are persistent scammers, but they also have consistent methods. consumers can be of the lookout and know that there is something fishy about what is happening. the caller could be as state collected their seeking a payment on a debt that you do not remember or recognize oh stop it is hard -- or recognize. it is hard. you might have a debt from long time ago. if you do not recognize it, that is a red flag. if they refused to give a mailing address or a phone number or it sounds fake, they might make up the mailing address, or this sounds fishy

or false, that is another red flag. and asking for personal or banking information, do not give it. sometimes they have it, and that is disconcerting. it seems more legitimate. but if they ask you for the information, do not give it. if they threaten arrest saying they will get you fired, both are red flags. if you are a consumer and you think this is a fake debt collector, one thing you should do is collect information they are willing to give you and reported to the ftc. 877-ftc-help. get the phone number and that names of the company and the mailing address.

any information they are willing to give you or if there is a caller id. anything you can get, that would be helpful if you want to file a complaint. tell them that you refuse to pay off any debt until you get a written notice. it has to include that aim of the creditor, the amount of debt debt. -- debt. if they say no, we will not send it, that is a red flag. you can stop speaking with the caller. tell them that you are discontinuing any communication with them. contact the creditor to see if it is legitimate erie also --

legitimate. also, refer to the ftc. >> howard getting this information? -- how are they getting this information? >> that is a good question. we think that there could be some -- some people that are trading people's personal information. we are interesting in finding out who these people are and where they're getting their leads from. >> you have said that in some pieces the caller said had foreign accents. what if they do not have an accent? does that mean it is legitimate? >> no.

they are popping up everywhere. it is growing. even if the caller does not have an accent, there are many consumers who have complained. it is a wide problem everywhere. >> are these scams just calling the consumers or are they calling parents and siblings and children and relatives? >> because -- they are often calling old numbers erie it -- they are calling old numbers. if they do get a relative and are threatening the relatives that the r grandson will be arrested, they do that in order

to collect money from people. if a parent or a relative receives a call from someone who is threatening to have personal information that might be outdated, take information from them, but do not pay anything. >> i would like to thank everyone on the panel. i think we are one minute early. thank you to each of you for joining us today and talking about various scams you have been working on. unfortunately, a keep us employed. thank you. [applause] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2013] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] >> more now from the consumer protection summit. this one focused on prescription drugs and dietary scams. this is about the demon it's.

-- 50 minutes. >> good morning. i'm an assistant director at the federal trade commission. this panel talk talk about the risk of dietary supplements. we have not acknowledge the passing of a legend from the food, drug, and dietary supplement industry. he passed away yesterday and served as a deputy chief for litigation. no one was or ever will be as passionate about protecting consumers from the dangers of fraudulent dietary supplements and pharmaceuticals, medical devices.

he protected the public for over four decades. he will be missed. on the subject that he peered most about, that is the market that help to the public. before marketing help to the public, generally speaking, firms and individuals had approval from the government before marketing health insurance to the public, you have to get a license. before marketing yourself to a nurse or a dentist, you do get approval. we have to show that you know what you are talking about before you become a doctor. you have to pass a test to show you know you're talking about. before marketing medical devices or pharmaceuticals, you have to demonstrate that buttocks are safe and effective.

-- that your products are safe and ieffective. health is the most important thing we have got. before you take something, you want to know the act product or service -- service is tried and true. we do not want to think of ourselves as ginny takes. -- guinea pigs. i very supplements require -- dietary supplements require research. if you do not research it, you might be signing up to be as ginguinea pigs. there are many supplements out there, but there may be ones that represent unnecessary risk s to consumers that they need to be aware of.

an esteemed group of speakers we have today will talk about dietary supplements and that this tensile -- and the potential they pose. we have a director of the office of dietary supplements at the national institute of health. they evaluate and support and conduct research and dietary supplements. i will introduce the other speakers in turn. first, he will speak on the issue of ethics, that is whether dietary supplements do what they claim to do. >> thank you. it is nice of you to invite me. i'm not a lawyer. i'm not a regulator. my office is very much involved in the science of dietary supplements. we work closely with partner agencies in the federal government, notably the fda and

ftc. we are also a major resource for consumers. that is where we feel we have our best opportunity to inform people about the issues related to supplements. you mentioned efficacy. it is one of the things we are concerned about in our own work. safety and quality are some of the major issues in most everything we do. in terms of efficacy, the fact is that there are many dietary supplementary agreements in which it is hard to prove. there are some for which it is not difficult because for many of the ingredients, you are

getting them as part of the food supply. that is why dietary supplements are a commodity class and a regulated as foods and not as drugs. that does not help the consumer who does not care about anything. they want to know whether something works. sometimes it is hard to prove that ingredients in supplements that are usually given this extra make some difference. sometimes it does. it is not always easy for people to sort out the differences. we like to think that we provide a good house of information for consumers and for the health care providers who we believe consumers should be consulting when they are

preparing to think about taking dietary supplements erie it you do not have to -- supplements. you do not have to. you can walk into the local supermarket and pick up dietary supplements of different kinds. you do not need someone's advice. it isn't enough, as far as i'm concerned. you should be prepared to have that conversation with your doc or her -- doctor. will it be effective? is it safe to use? those are questions you should always have in your mind whether to take dietary supplements. we have an act for that. -- app. is called my dietary supplements. it is available if you good our website, you can download it.

we encourage people to track their use of dietary supplements. kind of like if you are tracking the physical activity with one of these little things or if you are monitoring your food intake in a food diary, it is a similar kind of tool to monitor your dietary supplements use. the other use this has to that it helps with the conversation with your dietitian. we concerned with issues not only regarding efficacy, but safety. a component of safety is the interaction that might exist between ingredients in dietary supplements and prescription drugs that you might be taken under a doctor's care. it is a good idea to let them know what supplements you are taking in order to over a

potential harm associated with interaction. there are several examples. it is not widespread. the sky is not falling. there are enough examples that we should be alert to the fact that interactions might be an issue. , quality. this speaks to what is in the bottle. sometimes what is on the label is not on the bottle. it seems to me because of fda actions over the last several years, increasingly manufacturers are being expected to toe the line about quality of their product. that means good manufacturing

standard practices and be much more conscious to have on the label what is in the bottle. do not lie about it. the overestimate or underestimate. when those regulations are fully implemented by the industry, consumer stand a better chance of being confident that what is on the label is in the bottle. we in the government are trying to provide that and useful information -- provide data and useful information to consumers that might help them get that information. i will stop there. >> if i'm the consumer, how should i make a decision? how do i know if i need a dietary supplement? should i take one to help my condition?

or if i'm a perfectly healthy individual, what consideration should i have? >> these are important and practical questions to ask. the one i have mentioned is i encourage you to seek advice from professionals. we have information on our website. our website provides links to other valuable sources and information. they are health related information. when a my colleagues in the office -- one of my colleagues in the office is involved in the development of updating fact sheets. for consumers and healthcare providers. we give details, as will as the over review so they can understand whether vitamin d in a particular set of circumstances may or may not be

valuable. the fact sheet or by -- provide references to relevant literature or other info consumers might find useful. treat this as healthcare. pause for a second and realize what i'm telling you. it is an intervention. they are biologically active. they might have consequences. it might have benefits or may not have benefits. you may not know. you would probably benefit by gathering more information. in the age of the internet, the blessing is that there's a huge amount of information on there. the curse is that there is a huge amount information on the internet. it is difficult to sort out sometimes. but it is a good place to start.

you can get information like that. you should be asking if you're planning to take supplements. are you reasonably healthy? are you die conscious? are you getting -- are you diet conscious? there seems little reason to be enthusiastic about getting additional ingredients like these from dietary supplements. there are circumstances in which it can benefit. in the most part, are you seeking nutritional insurance? are you getting coverage for shortfalls? do you have a slightly unhealthy diet? it may not be any value to you. i mentioned a little bit about possible safety concerns. they are not widespread, but they are there lurking in the

background. at very high levels, there can be serious toxicity. it might not be all that difficult for you to get to high levels of vitamin a. if you are taking it from supplements. the window of opportunity between what is recommended and what is the upper tolerable limits is not huge for any trend like -- for a nutrient like a vitamin 8. we do not even2, know what a toxic levels of vitamin b 12. nevertheless, taking very high levels of anything, you should think about it.

that gets to the notion of -- sometimes it is very valuable to talk with your physician about what might be recommended intake. she cannot give you a prescription for it. she cannot tell you this is the perfect for you. you should be alert to the fact that a dose can make a difference. the dosing schedule is another thing you might want to be thinking about. the other piece of advice i would give you if you are thinking about supplements, do not do it because you think you have a health condition and you diagnosed yourself. you should not be making these

decisions for yourself. think about why you were doing this. i do urge you not to consider taking dietary supplements described medications unless you are doing that with the knowledge and the approval of your health care provider. i think the last thing i would comment on safe is not the equivalent to a natural. it is clear that almost every night -- every supplement an agreement be confined comes from some natural source or another. -- every supplement you can find comes from a natural source on another. you need to be aware of all those things. >> one more quick question. you mentioned briefly falling dosage labels, fallen recommendations of the manufacturers, is it always the case that these recommendations

and labels of the manufacturers of dietary supplements are based on science and well funded research? >> generally speaking, that is the case. signs that underpins those recommendations is very stable and consistent. sometimes, the science that supports a dietary supplements and some of the more exotic ones will fall into this category, are ones where we do not have a huge amount of science upon which chicken base of the recommendation. -- upon which we can base a good recommendation. there are plenty of reliable honest brokered manufacturers of dietary supplements. you might not always know who they are or who they are not. they look like drugs, they come in bottles that are placed not

next to, but not far away from the drugs that might be intended to replace. consumers are at a bit of -- can be confused by that. i would say that for the most part, recommended intakes follow dietary reference intakes. canada and the u.s. make the same kind of recommendation. >> let's turn to our second speaker. he is a special agent and senior operations manager of drugs at the u.s. food and drug administration's office of criminal investigation. jeff began his career in 2004 serving in new york field office. investigating a variety of criminal schemes involving fda

regulated products. jeff has served at headquarters managing and coordinating various investigative areas involving drugs, medical devices, biologics, veterinary medicine, and tampering. would you address the issue of the claims made on dietary supplements that you have seen it? >> absolutely. good morning, everyone. is a privilege to be here and i appreciate the invitation. a little bit more about myself, i come from a health care background. i am a registered pharmacist and i have been involved in the drug arena for over 25 years. my first professional career was as a registered pharmacist working in the retail drug sector at the independent drug stores and the chain drugstores. the biggest thrill i had was to

consult consumers on their medication usage, both prescription or over-the- counter. also, a dietary supplements happen to fall on my lap and consulting with patients on their particular needs. after a stint as a retail pharmacist, i began my career with the fda on the regulatory side. my primary role was to inspect fda regulated facilities primarily in the areas of drugs. it was then i was dead by law enforcement budget. ---- bit by a law-enforcement bug. my primary role was to investigate medicare fraud. fda law enforcement arm, i

investigated a variety of cases, criminal activity, primarily in the drug arena. for those of you who do not know much about oci, we are a small organization located underneath the office of regulatory affairs. we are fda's law enforcement arm. the conduct a variety of investigations involving all fda regulated -- including dietary supplements. for those of you who do not really know the structure and framework of the fda, basically speaking, there are six backbone's of the fda located here in maryland. each center is responsible for overseeing and regulating particular commodities. those six centers are the center for biologics evaluation and research, the center for veterinary medicine, the center

for devices and radiological health, the center for tobacco products, the center for food safety and applied nutrition, and a center for drugs evaluation and research. dietary supplements primarily are regulated by the center for food safety and applied nutrition. however, in my line of work, in the drug arena, at certain times, those dietary supplements are under the purview of the center for drugs. the types of criminal investigations that i see involving a dietary supplements are twofold. we have tainted dietary supplements. these particular investigations that we do in these areas can have potential hazards both direct house aides, meaning the product itself can cause serious injury or harm, including death,

or there can be an indirect help hazard, where the product itself poses no health hazard, but consuming a likely will delay treatment or cause a consumer to discontinue appropriate medical treatment. that being said, tainted supplements. this is a growing area and when i checked earlier in the week, fda lists every tinted supplement but it has identified, there were 332 different dietary supplements that are identified as -- to contain active pharmaceutical ingredients. i really like to hammer home the seriousness of this issue because it is very important to fda and it is a public health issue. i will provide you with a couple of examples of these api we're finding day in and day out.

the first example would be a pharmaceutical agreement -- it is an active ingredient in an approved fda prescription drug products for weight-loss. a few spots, fda -- a few years back, the fda noted an increased risk of strokes and heart attacks. fda requested that the manufacturer withdraw the product from the u.s. marketplace and the dead. -- and it did. due to unscrupulous individuals, this particular chemical is making its dietary supplements, which to combine the internet or in your corner gas station. -- which you can buy on the

internet or in your corner gas station. it can cause a substantial increase in blood pressure. there could be interactions with consumers that have particular disease states, in this case, you can only imagine that the individual consumer looking to lose weight as a cardiovascular ailments, such as congestive heart failure or arrhythmias or coronary artery disease. it can cause serious injury or death. another example would be in the mail enhancement area. -- male enhancement areas. there are defined and prescription drugs in the u.s. and dietary supplements for erectile dysfunction.

come in with their own inherent precautions. these particular products or contra indicated for use in individuals -- organic nitrates, used by heart patients to treat chest pain. say for example you can imagine a consumer visiting with this position requesting and direct all dysfunction prescription medication, but based upon the current medication that patient is taking, nitrates, the doctor decided against it but that consumer goes to what they believe is a natural dietary supplement. they decide to purchase the suspected product or product that may contain one of these api's. you can see where the danger can occur. these two products can

significantly lower blood pressure to the point of dangerous situations. the criminals have found other ways of getting other into dietary supplements. the fda has found element in dietary supplements. it is a drug, a chemical that is similar in chemical structure as these approved drugs, however slightly different. the criminal suspecting that the product will sustain their therapeutic effect. however, some of these analogues may not actually have been

studied in clinical trials. therefore, we're planning in the wild west. another example of drugs found in dietary supplements is another prescription contained pre difference active pharmaceutical ingredients. those were a steroid, a non- steroid, and a muscle relaxant. you can only imagine how we have three different active pharmaceutical ingredients in one over-the-counter product. depending on what type of disease states the individual consumer has and what types of medications they are taking, this is a problem.

not to belabor the point, some of the other drugs include blood pressure lowering medication by rednecks, does that -- diuretics, designers steroids, and medication used for seizures. all found in dietary supplements. in other types of crime is helped fraud scams. the snake oil scams. let me read to you the definition of fraud. it is deceptive promotions, advertisement, for the sale of products being affected and diagnosed to treat or mitigate disease or to provide a beneficial effect on health of

which has not been scientifically proven safe and effective for such purposes. i think that is where we get into the drug arena. regulated as a food product tends to make statements and diagnose -- examples that we see in this arena are statements involving chronic, serious diseases such as cancer, arthritis, diabetes, and sexually transmitted diseases, including hiv. you can only imagine what individuals -- what can happen to both the consumer and other individuals associated with the consumer when taking products that give false hope.

unfortunately, these criminals out there providing these type of dietary supplements with choruses of never been studied, they feed on the vulnerable public, especially in times of panic. for example, during avian influenza. what type of enforcement tools does fda have to protect consumers? fda has both regulatory options and criminal options. from regulatory standpoint, fda can issue warning letters, they have administrative authorities where they can institute the unemployed or refusal -- can institute a refusal. a product can be stopped at the border.

some regulatory civil judicial actions, seizures and injunctions. fda can investigate criminally and a lot of times our criminal investigations move parallel with civil action. what kind of education cannot provide to you today? -- can i provide to you today? books for the red flags. look for statements that say treat serious incurable diseases. look for other catch phrases. scientific breakthroughs, secret formulas and my favorite, they do not want you to know about it. check with your physician or

your pharmacist prior to taking dietary supplements and be sure to tell your physician or your pharmacist if you are already taking a dietary supplement. visit the fda website, there is a lot of information regarding dietary supplements, especially when it comes to the scams out there. it also lists a lot of the product names that are associated with the scams and are tainted. consumers need to do their due diligence in this area. also, be aware of where you are purchasing products. the internet is like the wild west. be careful and do your searching wisely. >> we have heard a lot this morning about the various challenges of law enforcement to combat scams. what are some of the difficulties and obstacles that you have seen in combating the types of scams in the

identified? >> it has been mentioned this morning, it is a global problem. any time we're trying to conduct a criminal investigation were the criminals are located overseas, it makes us that much more difficult to run the investigation. we rely on collaborating with other law-enforcement agencies and we rely on collaborating with other law-enforcement and regulatory components of foreign governments. in addition, the fda is a public health and safety organization. to conduct a criminal investigation involving a public health and safety matter where the public needs to be warned, it makes it difficult at times to conduct a criminal investigation because once an alert goes out, notifying the public of another tainted supplement the hatch is -- hat

is tipped. there may be consumers who are saying to themselves, i have a disease, and i need something that is going to cure me. they've gone to their physician, gone to different sources and they are lacking something that is going to cure their ailment and want to say, i will not listen to some government bureaucrat to is telling me i should not take this product because it might cure might otherwise incurable disease. why shouldn't i go on the internet? why shouldn't i go someplace else and look for this juror? -- this cure? >> that is a difficult question because i have been the bureaucrats. the only thing i can say to that is consumers need to do their research.

at the end of the day, you need to trust your physician and a pharmacist. >> i want to turn to our third speaker. patrick is a trial attorney at the department of justice. he has been in that position since september 2009. prior to that, he was a clerk on the u.s. court of appeals for the second circuit. his gun to address some -- he is going to address a specific subject, the subject of manufacturing practices. he will talk about it globally. in thea trial attorney consumer protection branch in the department of justice. we handle cases on behalf of the fda. i would like to talk about the rules under applicable to

dietary supplement manufacturing practices. up until around a few years ago, the only rules that are applicable were the same rules that were applicable to the production facilities. those for the general -- in the latter part of the 2000's, the fda committed to regulations because they identified the need and the dietary supplement industry. those new rules are beneficial in 2007 and went into effect in 2008 and 2009 and 2010. compliance with those new rules has been very difficult challenge for many manufacturers. an fda audit in 2012, the inspections that have been conducted, fda found that in

about half of the inspections, they had identified manufacturing practices. fda cannot inspect even half of the facilities that are out there. it has to inspect cosmetic manufacturers. it is impossible for the fda to inspect all the dietary supplement manufacturers out there. half of the supplement manufacturers are not even getting to the baseline of being able to ensure that their products are what they say they are. talking -- i want to give a specific example of when things can go wrong. i will talk about the case i litigated. i brought cable show and tell today.

-- a little show and tell today. i want to talk about a firm in new jersey that i litigated against. quality formulation laboratories was not a fly by night company. it was a large dietary supplement manufacturer. it had been around for over 20 years at the time of the lawsuits. it made a lot of products, but " the bulk of the products were worked out supplements. -- work-out supplements. these are protein powders. qfl made milk protein and egg protein powders that were sold the about the country. most of the products for sold as third-party brands. there were labeled as other

company brands. he would have no idea where they were manufactured. they also sell products under their own brand name which was american sports nutrition. at the time, qfl had a distribution deal worked out with costco or its product was going to almost every costco warehouse in the united states. that deal was lucrative. it was worth about $10 million upfront. there are plenty of companies out there trying to do the right thing. qfl came on to fda's radar in

2007. there was a consumer in the pacific northwest. he was a college student and he had a lifelong severe milk allergy. his parents bought him a top of protein powder that was supposed to be fed protein powder. it was labeled with a different companies' brand. he took half a scoop of fat and protein powder and then a very short time, his heart stopped, his throat had swollen shut. his roommate administered -- his remains bottom to the hospital. -- got into the hospital. his parents complained to fda and told them about the situation. fda found that this product had been manufactured at the facility. in early 2007, the investigators

found a number of issues that were of some concern. qfl did not have controls over cross contamination. what that means is they would produce and halogen containing product followed by a product that was supposed to -- without making sure that none of the prior allergen admitted to the second product. one would be inadequate cleaning of the production equipment, another would be because it is a potter substance, -- powder substance. there was another problem that fda observed, inadequate formulation records so that it was not clear exactly what ingredients and how much had gone into what product. there also labeling issues. fda took a bunch of samples and

noticed that some of the labels did not reflect what was in the product. fda try to work with the company to bring the company into compliance. the agency pursued through letters and other submissions. fda went back any issues of cross contamination -- fda surmised that the issues were by the consumer had been issued and the pacific northwest. fda continued to try to work with the company. when they went back to the company into thousand eight, -- 2008, at the inspector saw something that was truly extraordinary. they found an active rodent infestation. there were rats running for the facility.

there were dogs of raw ingredients -- bags of raw ingredients that had been gnawed through by rodents. in addition to that, the investigators, the residue was all over the place of the protein powder. this time, there were hundreds of mouse footprints in the residue. most troubling lee, the investigators found half of a raft that had been cut in half and was sitting next to this group that was used to scoop the powder into the blenders. that was a -- there was a bright red blood coming out of it. attorneys from -- the other thing that happened was there

were some indications that the products had been intentionally -- milk protein is cheaper than and protein. attorneys from my office filed lawsuits against qfl on july 1, 2009, seeking to shut the company down. as in is the loss it was announced, costco dropped the products and returned all the to the firm. that was about a million dollars for the product. qfl chose to litigate the case for about nine months, even with the evidence that we had. eventually, the firm of greed and fda has a typical -- the firm agreed. it requires the firm to do an upfront shut down.

the firm is supposed to stop all operations and then provide a path forward is which the firm can hire experts and it's a new fda inspection and a half to get written authorization. that is the kind -- now we're up to march 2010. in march 2010, the district of new jersey court entered a consent agreement and in most cases, that would end the case. that did not and the case. the consent decree, and shut them down and forbid them from receiving manufacturing, caring, packing, distributing food at their plant located in paterson, new jersey, or any other location, or any new location. this case was just getting

started. shortly after that, the fda got a tip that they had simply just moved its operation somewhere else. they work every day instructing their employees to arrive at their present facility and putting those employees into vans and driving them a certain distance to an undisclosed location and from there, they were putting powder into tubs and sending it out to consumers. fda's office of criminal investigation conducted a criminal search warrant of that new location on may 13 of 2010. that new location was a 30 miles north of northern new jersey. when they got there, they found employees sitting around tables. they saw a large operation that was and packing.

-- hand packing. at the exact same time the search warrant was being executed, inspectors from new jersey field office went to the qfl facility to conduct an inspection. they asked the owner for records relating to qfl. the owner of the firm and his son -- the investigators say we know about the other place. and then there were records offered 100 pages of records. the inspector found some other products that have been shipped to that facility during the time it was supposed to be doing nothing at all.

in july of 2010, we petition the court in new jersey told them in criminal contempt. the court accepted our petition and started a criminal proceedings against the companies and individuals. great number of extraordinary other things that happens. in january of 2011, which was a month before we were supposed to go to trial, we recalling around for various witnesses to see if you could find some other companies did gotten products. we call the company, performance food centers, we asked them if they'd gotten product from qfl. and they said, we're supposed to pick up a shipment from then tomorrow. that was interesting. the oci agents conducted an

undercover operation where we put an agent on performance food centers track and videotaped them distributing product of the paterson, new jersey, where house. this was a government exhibit 805. ultimately, the defendants went to trial in may of 2011 in trenton, new jersey. there were convicted on all of the charges. the companies were fined a total of a million dollars. the honor got a 40-month prison sentence. when they were sentenced in november of 2011, the judge said the criminal contempt -- i do have to say they appealed their convictions and in january of 2013, the court of appeals in

philadelphia confirmed their convictions. we're still litigating this case right now. it is likely that they will ask the supreme court to review their convictions. >> patrick, for those in the audience and those who may be watching on television, they should be horrified by some of the things that he said. when consumers are researching their dietary supplements and figuring out whether they are safe or have been manufactured according to best practices, what can i do -- what other steps can and do to find out whether the dietary supplements their taking have been manufactured as they should be? >> one of the most important things that a person can do it is a research online. possible other complaints

against the company's better making these dietary supplements. the fda website is very important resource in terms of companies that fda has taken regulatory action against. we had a large database of warning letters. it is rare that for a case to get to our office, fda issues many more warning letters to advise companies that they are engaged in practices better unsafety consumers. >> i want to thank the panelist terry much. -- very much. [applause]

>> thank you for hanging in there everybody. we're almost done. i love the month of march. spring training has begun. spring is around the corner. our next panel is happy to tell you all about it. hopefully on consumers with additional information that they can watch out for to become avoiding victims of comment tax fraud schemes. we have the acting director of the global financial crimes section in the internal revenue service. tell us what to watch out for.

>> what most taxpayers are -- to different types of scams that might be perpetrated on them during tax season. the first is something that happens without their knowledge, their identities stolen and they have no idea that it happens. they do not feel they had reason to even file. the second one is situations where taxpayers have entrusted their information to a professional and sometimes they're taken advantage of. this is a very small minority of instances, whether someone steals your information or there is a return preparer, it is a

very hard situation to rectify. we're here to talk about some of those. the most important one, one that has received the most price of light is identity theft. taxpayers, information is stolen and it is used to file a tax return. the taxpayer has no idea their information has been compromised. this starts early. filing season opens up in early february and because they know we start processing returns and a note they have some information and i try to get the information into our system as soon as possible. >> where are you seeing them stealing the identities the

most? >> anyplace that you could deliver up your name, address, social security number, a can be stolen. we have seen from health care institutions, car dealerships, financial institutions. it is difficult process to prepare your own taxes, but once somebody has done that for you and you have no idea, how do you find out about it? the irs may issue you a notice saying we have a tax return and we have some questions. he may be trying to follow your own return after the fact. you might start getting a notice that you owe additional money. he might get a notice from a

federal or state or local benefits agency sank, we will start processing -- holding your benefits because the irs told us she filed a tax return. that disqualifies you. the best thing you can do is contact the irs. we have a special unit, it deals solely with these types of instances. there is an 800 number or you can call and report that information. if you have been given notice by the irs that information has been stolen, it will give you complete instructions on how to work for the process to revise the irs of the credit information and how to correct

your accounts with the irs. >> robert, i understand a lot of these scanners are using prepaid cards in order to help effectuate their scheme. they're stealing the customers' activity, getting their refunds, and asking the treasury department to load their refunds on to these prepaid cards. >> we have seen the refund loaded onto prepaid cards. we have seen the refunds going to bank accounts. they have even gotten a treasury check. all of those are valid ways to receive your refund. they use any of those means to

get the cash in their hand. that is their objective. another fraud scam that they can run. >> that is one of the concerns we have about a margin payments mechanism, making the money much easier and much more anonymous. it is something we're paying attention to. >> i was just going to add on the enforcement and, which is where the department of justice comes in, we have had a number of prosecutions of individuals that have been convicted of stolen identity refund fraud. there has been installed and identity, they have used it to get a tax refund or multiple tax refunds. some of those prosecutions have received sentences ranging

anywhere from a year to over 10 years. identity theft as a crime has a very high sentence. these individuals do not just steal water to identities -- one or two identities, what we are seeing our individuals that do hundreds and hundreds of these. each taxpayer is injured to the tune of a couple of thousand dollars. the perpetrators are getting refunds of hundreds of thousands of dollars. when they're prosecuted, each instance of identity theft is a heavy sentence. those are multiplied. >> aggravated identity theft carries with it a mandatory minimum sentence of two years.

that goes along with what you are saying. >> a lot of these individuals have these schemes going, it adds up very quickly. in addition, though, to criminally prosecuting people who are stealing identities, once the department -- what the department justice does is try to find these people and shut them down, whether they are tax return preparers that made to a legitimate return they're also doing illegitimate tax returns, the irs can shut those down with civil injunction. over the past 10 years, the department of justice has -- some of them combined their for

services with identity theft. they can be shut down. on the department of justice website, there are a number of press releases. if you think your return preparer is doing something shady, you want to see if they are allowed to continue to prepare returns, you can look on the website and look for injunctions and you can see whether or not the person is under an injunction. we are heading this from tax in terms of enforcement. we have the prosecution's, but we also have stopping the practice through civil processes. >> what can consumers do? what can a taxpayer do once their identity is stolen and they think they're entitled to a refund but the refund has

already been paid out? >> you can contact the irs directly. they will lucky to the process of filing your legitimate tax return -- walk you through the process of filing are legitimate tax return. because the account is wrapped up in this identity theft scam, it will not be the normal two week turnaround that we do for refunds. it will take three, four, five months. that is down from what has been in the past years. the irs has signed up for 3000 personnel to work these kinds of cases. if you find that process is not

moving forward for you and you are having a financial hardship that you cannot do around because of that, and additional resources that you can go to is something called the tax payer advocates service. you can contact them directly as well. 877-777-4778. they can help try to cut the red tape if you are having a hardship situation. because you're dealing with trying to unravel a fraud scheme, you want to make sure -- they use the same mechanisms to try to determine whether refunds or my address has changed. the same legitimate tools the taxpayer can use to try to gain the system.

it takes a while. there is a mechanism and it will get resolved. once you are identified as a victim of identity theft, the irs is assigned an identity pin. the systems will be tied that in order to file tax returns, he will have a pin number every year. you will confirm not only the information on the tax return, but you will confirm the piece of information the irs has already sent you. but before we wrap up, do you want to mention the dirty dozen? >> each year, the irs find a

dozen tasking to the public should be aware of. these are people trying to comply with the tax system to figure out how to pray on the taxpayers. we talked a little bit about return preparers and what you want to know is no matter who you pay to help prepare your tax returns always get a copy of the return, signed only a completed return, go to a prepared -- april. that is reputable. when you pay a tax preparer, there fee should be based upon the complexity of your return.

if the return preparer -- your refund should not be coming from the return preparer. >> my favorite web sites is www.irs.gov. all of the information on ideas that, -- id theft, and tips for choosing a tax preparer, are on the website. some of the other schemes that are not necessarily perpetrated on consumers, but consumers can get sucked into, are schemes to create yourself as a church, to

file zero returns, a constitutional argument. those are things to watch out for if it seems too good to be true, all that. a lot of those are detailed on that page. >> i would like to identify one more. it is a common scheme. there is something called phishing schemes where they try to contact you through a social media. they're portraying themselves as the irs. the irs does not initiate taxpayer contact. if you get an e-mail from something that looks like it's from the irs and you've not been contacted the mail previously, you can go to

irs.gov. there is an e-mail address for you can forward that e-mail and investigators will look into that. a lot of the schemes are coming from offshore. even that information is valuable. the irs -- >> thank you very much. [applause] thank you for attending. that wraps up our second annual consumer protection summit. thank you, a georgetown university. i do want to make one last plug for our website. thank you very much. hope to see next year. [captioning performed by national captioning institute]

[captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2013] >> the final panel of the consumer segment -- [no audio]

>> i believe the united states has many fantastic qualities. i do believe may be many people have the possibility of pulling themselves up by the bootstraps. i think every year that is less and less probable. the united states, especially in its foreign policy, is not the great nation. it is an intervention states, it is extremely aggressive militarily. the mass with other people's politics in ways that i cannot imagine americans tolerating.

imagine if some country invaded us to bring some system of government the way we did in iraq. somehow, we still have a myth that people are thrilled to invade them. that is insane. i believe 99% of the time we create new enemies. >> she has made a career as an advocate for world peace. more with jody williams sunday night at 8:00. >> secretary of state john kerry and first lady michelle obama honored the recipients of the international women's of courage award. it recognizes women from around the world to a shown courage and leadership in advocating women's rights. this is 45 minutes. [applause]

>> thank you all very much. thank you. good afternoon, mrs. obama, secretary kerry, secretary, congresswoman edwards, minister of australia, all of you with us today. welcome to the u.s. department of state for the 7th annual celebration of the secretary of state's international women of courage awards. to mark the 102 an ver arise we celebrate women of courage from afghanistan, china, india, nigeria, russia, and vietnam.

all countries i have had the privilege of visiting and meeting with extraordinary women. today, i have the honor of introducing our extraordinary woman, our first lady michelle obama. [applause]

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>> i would like to put in the statement from the united states attorney that testified that in a 2004 follow-up report to the national institute of justice the same researchers concluded the use in crimes of assault weapons subject to the 1994 ban declined by more than two-theurpdz the first -- two-thirds the first nine years and a statement from professor tribe, if i may. >> without objection. >> for the record.

senator lee. there's a classified matter that will require senator grassley and i and a couple other members of the senate to be at, and as a result we will recess at 11:45 subject to the call of the ch r chair, which may bring us back today or tomorrow, we will see. just so you know. >> i thank mr. chairman. i want to make a brief statement about concerns i have about this legislation. all of us are devastated by the acts of mass violence and each of us would choose to find any way we can to reduce incidents of violence.

i'm concerned about this legislation for, number one, i would worry about giving the american people the false impression we can fix this through federal legislation especially in light of our experience with past similar measures that proved unsuccessful in bringing an end to this type of violence or any significant noticeable statistically significant reduction in it. ways more n some importantly, we have to remember the interest of the law abiding. there are some people that are probably not going to comply with a lot of laws no matter what they say. there's a group that will typically abide regardless of what the law says. fortunately, we in america are people the y majority of whom are in the latter category.

the supreme court has established a standard in the heller case that people have a second amendment right laws no possess a firearm typically possessed for law abiding purposes. there are about four million ar don ar-15's and others that fall into a ban like this. to my knowledge the overwhelming majority of them are possessed by will you abiding people -- law abiding people and used for hunting, target practice, self-defense and the like. i'm yet to be convinced that the prepoints of this legislation have met the burden that this law with do more harm than good and any good would offset these interests of these law abiding citizens. for those reasons i can't support this legislation. >> thank you.

i know senator grassley wanted to finish his part before we break. you have an amendment? >> i do. a alb-13190 i know requiring the attorney general to submit an annual report to congress detailing the statistics of the department prosecution of violation of federal firearm law. it would require him to provide information to cases from prosecution federal, state and gun laws aoeulgviolation of and information where the department failed to file charges based attorney general to upon the referrals. it requires information why cases were not charges, whether phrae agreements were -- plea agreements were entered and defendant pled or was found guilty and what other charges were brought with the firearms

law. this is necessary so i want to emphasize, necessary given the concern we heard at all three hearings about the lack of prosecutions under the current laws. example, it was discussed at the subcommittee hearing how over 76,000 individuals were denied firearms under background checks and yet only 62 were prosecuted. the argument was that nearly impossible to prosecute because penalties are too low and violations too hard who prove. i think this is too simple of an argument but understand some of the concerns. however, even if we do pass any of the bills on the mark-up under tod undertoday and they become law we need to ensure they are enforced. if we don't get detailed

information about how they enfirst or fail to enforce we won't know if it works so this is a necessary step to ensure that changes in federal laws have desired impact. i understand the justice department strongly opposes. their concern is it intrudes into the prosecutorial decision making and argue unnecessarily burdens them with reports that detract from prosecution of criminals. that we hearument ts all the time from departments and agencies that don't want congress overseeing them and i don't buy in and members shouldn't just take their word for it. reports like this wouldn't be necessary in the department answered our letters and responded to our questions about oversight and particularly if they did it at hearings. as an example it was pointed out

to the attorney general yesterday that we still await answers to questions from the last oversight hearing we had with the attorney general june of last year. with a response time like that we may never know how the department is working. an annual report would require the department to provide us data regularly and likely faster than if we asked the tarpb general himself. so i urge my colleagues to support this amendment so we can collect data. we need to ensure the department prosecutes the laws. i would like a roll call vote. >> thank you, mr. chairman. this amendment is a big, broad amendme amendment. it seeks to determine whether a decision has been made to charge an individual with a firearms violation in cases where no charge was made, a description of why no charge was filed, whether an indictment, information or other charge was

brought against any person and any case it is charged whether a firearm violation is alleged. a phrae agreement has been entered into and whether any phr plea agreement resulted a firearms conviction and any case where there is no conviction resulted identification of the charges for which the individual did plead guilty. the result of any trial on an alleged firearms violation and in any case not alleging a violation the nature other charges brought and result of any trial. having said that, i think that the kernel of this is a good thing and we should, if we can, get to the kernel of that and get it established. there are lots of these violations, some 70,000. and it is an overwhelming task.

i offered, senator, and i think my word i hope you think my word means something, to work with you and work down to that kernel so we get something that is do ab able. graham had this discussion. i understand the point. i think that we should have something. this is huge and broad and i justice t is kwhy proposes it. >> the senator asked for a roll call vote. >> i would like to say a word in support of the position. in the southern district of illinois based in the madison sinclair county the u.s. attorney is faced with a situation which is troubling. my hometown where i was born east shoes, has a violent crime rate and murder rate 18 times the national average, 18 times t the national average. the carnage there with misuse of

firearms is incredible. and they are doing everything they can to deal with it. because of budget cutbacks that we have imposed in congress it has reached where he can't fill vacancies. they have solicited by advertisement those that are willing to volunteer without any pay to serve as an assistant u.s. attorney in the southern district of illinois and some are coming forward to do it. it is an indication of the workload they face an desperate situation they are in to try to take control of what is a violent terrible thing menacing a lot of people. senator grassley, this is an incredible amount of paperwork that you are asking for. for every possible case reported to them by federal, state and local sources they are required to fill voluminous paperwork in response to your amendment instead of pursuing the criminals and those who are responsible for wrongdoing they will be filing forms with the

department of justice. i think we know what the problem is here. this is a paperwork offense under the current law. we want to make it a serious offense. that is why some of the changes we are considering will make a difference. but i think senator feinstein is right let's get to the root of the problem regular reporting but please don't impose this kind of paperwork requirement on many offices that are struggling to survive. >> i disagree. there is such a big gap between prosecution and violation of the laws we have to know why these are not being prosecuted and if they don't prosecute them they ought to be telling us why they don't prosecute them and i think this report answers those questions and will help fill the gap and i will bet we will get more prosecution. the clerk the call -- i don't want to cut anybody off. we know we are going to be recessing and --

>> i will put it on the record later. >> we would like to get this done before we do. does the senator wish to -- >> i will put it on the record later. >> call the roll. [calling the roll] [calling the roll] >> nine yea and nine nay.

>> then the amendment fails. >> let me leaf no doubt that senator feinstein does work well with me and with other people in the committee and i hope we can work out something to accomplish some of the goals i want to accomplish. this is my last amendment. i -- do you have an amendment? i will go through mine very fast. i hope we can vote on this bill today and get this behind us. this is amendment alb-13193 raoeurbg the director of n.i.j. to conduct a study to examine the impact of violent adult team video games may have on mass shootings. it is not about blaming an industry for the horrific acts of mass shooters. it is simply examining the role that violent games may play in recent mass shootings. according to media reports, the

perpetrators of mass shooting in aurora, tphutown were both avid players of violent video games. the norway mass shooter described how he used video games it train for the attack. this is troubling given the number of these games that are sold annually in the united states and around the world. our video game -- one called call of duty modern warfare 2, 22 million copies including an opening level where the player serves as an undercover operative. the player guides the player as part of a terror attack on a russian airport. the player takes part as a team shooter guns down innocent civilians waiting in an airport

-- well, my amendment is alb- alb-131 alb-13141. i ask consent to place these pictures in the record we have and i'm going to put the rest of the statement in the record. everybody knows what i'm talking cooms and i know senator comom has an amendment. >> i believe what we are talking about is 13141 a study focused on violent video games. the second degree amendment focuses on the fact i believe there is a wide range of possible causes of mass casualty incidents. i want to specifically amend my second degree amendment at 13 so

it is saying depictions of violence in the video game media and entertainment industries. so it is clear that i recognize the desirability of considering vacant video games but the second degree i'm offering lists a series of factors for this study. factors that include childhood abuse, exposure of criminal acts, bullying, mental illness, availability of mental health services and many others. imnot take the time to go through them all. >> my understanding is the senator from iowa accepts it? >> yes. >> without objection, the amendment is amended with the amendment of the senator from delaware. those in favor of the amendment as amended say yea. opposed. the yeas have it.

>> i have several amendments but i want to draw my colleagues' attention to senator feinstein, the exception in her legislation for gun ban for certain classes of americans namely to retired law enforcement officers. i think any exception to the ban is remarkable concession by the authors and co-sponsors of the bill that is because bill sponsors have long declared so-called assault weapons are purely offensive in nature as in design for killing. hence the name assault weapon but in fact i believe this exception concedes that there are some americans who should be allowed to possess the weapons for purposes of defending themselves, their families and communities. so, i would ask my khraegs why should it be limited to only retired law enforcement officers?

is it because we believe they have a special competency and training it use the weapons to defend themselves and others? or is it because we think they and their families are worthy of special protection? i want to be clear, i think every law abiding american has a right to choose how best to defend themselves and their families. that is why i strongly oppose this legislation. i wholeheartedly agree with the authors and sponsors that the weapons it with ban can and are used lawfully for self and family defense. so the purpose of amendments and i have a number of them is to highlight the dangers of a blanket ban and illustrate why we should not prevent law abidding citizens from owning them. if you don't believe they can be banned lawfully you should be offering an amendment to strike the exception for retired law enforcement. but of course i don't expect

that. >> does the senator have an amendment he wishes called up? >> i want to call up 113115. >> this amendment would allow members of the armed forces and veterans to obtain and possess the self-defense weapons prohibited by the legislation. members and veterans of the armed forces are the most highly trained and qualified individuals to own the weapons for self-defense purposes. we should think long and hard before disarming these heroes preventing them from protecting families and communities. >> senator feinstein. >> if i understand this, this adds an exemption of retired milita military. as i understand our bill, no

issue has arose during the 10 years the expired ban was in effect, and what we did in the other bill was exempt possession by the united states or a department or agency of the united states. so that included active military. the problem with expanding this is that with theed a -- with the advent of ptsd which i think is a new phenomenon with the product of the iraq war, it is not clear how the seller or transferrer of a firearm can verify that a person was a

member or veteran and there was no impairment of that individual with respect to having a weapon like this. so, i would be happy it sit down with you again and see if we could work something out. but i think we have to -- if you are going it do this, we have to find a way that veterans who are incapacitated for one reason or another mentally don't have access to this kind of weapon. >> i would suck -- suggest this that is worked on. i have some problems with her overall legislation but i'm going to vote for it to veteran matter out and get it on the floor so it is not just those of us in this recommend who get a chance to talk about it or act on it but the whole senate, all 100 of us. so, on the amendment the clerk

will call the roll. >> can i respond briefly that ptsd sufferers are already prohibited by law and i think it is a mistake to paint so broadly as to say any active duty military or veterans can't use these kinds of weapons or any other lawful weapons for self-defense and certainly i wouldn't want to suggest that we take people who served in the military all suffer from some debilitating illness that with prohibit them from being able to -- >> that suggestion has not been made by anybody on either side of the aisle and the clerk will call the roll. stphfp[ [roll call]

[roll call] >> nine yea and nine nay. >> the amendment fails. senator grassley. >> is it going to be possible to get this done before the chairman and i go for a briefing? >> i don't believe so. i don't know about your schedule but i have a number of other amendmen amendments. , if we are not going to be able to finish by the time to get this and because of unfortunately neither senator grassley nor senator feinstein are able to talk about the nature of this briefing, so we

will recess subject to the call of the chair. but we will get this bill completed. i appreciate the honesty of the senator from texas's answer. we stand in recess subject to the call of the chair. [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2013]

>> associated press reported an analysis is provided of the february jobs numbers, unemployment dropping to 7.7% with 236,000 jobs added. then we discuss efforts to engage young people on several issues including the national debt, fiscal responsibility and college affordability. after that, the new venture between housing lenders and

e-mails, phone calls and tweets. "washington journal" is live saturday 7:00 a.m. eastern on c-span. >> original people, navy seals, alamo, our environment but panels an discussions from the tusc tuscon festival of books starting today at noon with the photography of edward curtis. and what animals can teach us about health and healing. tomorrow starting 1:00 p.m. on afghanistan and social security. panels an authors from the tuscon festival of books on c-span 2. >> next secretary of state and first lady honor the recipients of the international women of courage awards. the annual award recognizes

woman who have advocated women's rights. this is 45 minutes. >> thank you very much. good afternoon, mrs. obama, second kerry, mrs. hines kerry, congressman edwards, minister collins of australia, all of your guests. welcome to the u.s. department of state for the seventh annual celebration of the secretary of state's international women's of courage awards. the 102nd anniversary of international women's day we

celebrate women of courage from afghanistan, china, honduras, india, nigeria, russia, so -- sign somalia and vietnam all countries i have visited and meeting with extraordinary wo n women. today i have the honor of introducing our extraordinary woman, our first lady, michelle obama. i know our current secretary of state will permit me to say that we are very clear here at the state department, we are big fans of america's first ladies.

>> throughout her life and as first lady michelle obama has always stepped up. when faced with a challenge she not only faces it, she joins forces with those around her to make america and the world a better place. whether it is ensuring military men and women and families are cared for and have jobs to return to, encouraging young people to let's move or doing the dougie on late night television, she engages us, she inspires us and she empowers all of us to step up. michelle obama is about doing the right thing. she has stepped up her efforts on behalf of the american people and served alongside her husband