mr. liebowitz, let me switch to my concern about consumer fraud. first i'm very pleased with the work that the ftc is doing in this area. it's absolutely essential. you discussed four cases that the ftc has been pursuing. do you have any estimate at this point of the number of people who are being harmed by the scams? or could you give us an idea of the financial impact? >> sure. we know in these four cases alone, and obviously we have more investigations in the pipeline, it affected about 270,000 people. the amount of money that we think was at risk here or might have been lost to these scammers, of course, we'll try to get it back and we're in the process of doing so. isn't that great? it's about $30 million. we think of this as a small part of the -- a smart part of the approach we're taking to going after scammers who are taking advantage of consumers who are feeling legitimate financial anxiety or having problems paying their mortgages. for example, we did another sweep involving foreclosure rescue scams and mortgage modification scams. we did

mr. liebowitz, i'm not sure we need this pact. but it's very good information. thank you. >> thanks, senator mccain for your thoughtful questions and, i might add, your high quality diatribes. senator mccass skill. >> i'm going to try to live up the example -- >> i have every confidence. >> -- of the diatribe. i couldn't agree more with senator tester. these people tt are out there preying upon folks at this point in time, they are pond scum and they should go to jail. and whatever we need to do to help them go to jail, you need to let us know because, you know, i know you're doing sweeps. i know you're doing all this, but nothing counts more than cuffing somebody. >> i absolutely agree with you. in the context of the commerce committee reauthorization that we hope to see later this year or early next year, we'll have some ideas we can talk over with you. >> okay. great. i don't mean you to think, mr. nabors that i'm picking on you. it's going to feel like i'm picking on you. we sent out requests for all the state auditors asking for input on how they thi this i

mr. liebowitz, let me switch to my concern about consumer fraud.firs i'm very pleased with the work that the ftc is doing in this area. it's absolutely essential. you discussed four cases tha the ftc has bn pursuing. do you have any estimate at this point of the number of people who are being@@@@@ @ @ @ @ @ @ ) to get it back and we're inhe process of doing so. isn't that great? it's about $3 million. we think of this as a small part of the -a smart part of the approach we're taking to going after scammers who are taking advantage of consumers who are feeling legimate financial anxiety or having problems paying their mortgage for exampl we did another sweep involving foreclosure rescue scams and mortgage modification scams. we did it with attorneys general. and that one, for example, probably involves bilons of dollars in potential losses overall. in the financial stimulus area, it's a littleit of a whack mole problem. when we did this announcement, we kngw a bunch of websites, we put them on alert. they went down. that's good. but sometimes they p