Today, the Nebraska Attorney General’s Office announces Operation Collection Protection (OCP) which is a national coalition of federal, state, and local enforcement and regulatory organizations committed to working cooperatively to address illegal debt collection practices.  Led by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), more than 75 organizations participated in OCP, including the FTC, CFPB, Department of Justice, 47 other state attorneys general and the District of Columbia, 17 state regulatory agencies, one Canadian provincial regulatory agency, and a number of local authorities. 

The Attorneys General have reached a $71 million settlement with Amgen Inc. to resolve allegations that Amgen unlawfully promoted biologic medications Aranesp and Enbrel.  Aranesp is used to treat certain types of anemia by stimulating bone marrow to produce red blood cells.  Enbrel is used to treat a number of conditions, including plaque psoriasis.  The Complaint and Agreement to Entry of Final Consent Judgment (Agreement) filed today alleges that Amgen violated state consumer protection laws by: (1) promoting Aranesp for dosing frequencies longer than the FDA approved label without competent and reliable scientific evidence to substantiate the extended dosing frequencies; (2) promoting Aranesp for anemia caused by cancer without having FDA approval or competent and reliable scientific evidence to support it; and (3) promoting Enbrel for mild plaque psoriasis even though Enbrel is only approved by the FDA to treat chronic moderate to severe plaque psoriasis. 

Nebraska Attorney General Doug Peterson announced an agreement today with the nutritional supplement chain Vitamin Shoppe, Inc. that permanently bans the sale of products that contain BMPEA, a powerful stimulant and amphetamine-like substance. Products containing BMPEA are sometimes sold as weight loss or performance enhancing nutritional supplements.  

According to the agreement, Vitamin Shoppe, Inc. will not sell products containing or suspected of containing BMPEA.  If a product is at risk of containing BMPEA, Vitamin Shoppe, Inc. must perform testing to prove it does not contain the substance. The Oregon and Vermont Attorneys General have recently announced similar settlements.

Attorney General Doug Peterson, along with the Attorneys General of 21 states announced today that Classmates, Inc. (“Classmates”), along with Florists’ Transworld Delivery, Inc. and FTD.com Inc. (collectively “FTD”), have agreed to pay $11 million to settle allegations that the companies engaged in misleading advertising and billing practices.  The State of Nebraska’s portion of these settlement funds is $210,651.77. 
The Attorneys General allege Classmates and FTD engaged in misleading, unfair, and deceptive practices in violation of state consumer protection laws. Specifically, the Attorneys General’s investigation focused on the companies’ relationships with third-­‐parties who used negative option marketing practices to sell membership programs to consumers doing business online with Classmates and FTD.  Negative option marketing is a sales practice in which a seller treats a consumer’s failure to take an affirmative action, either to reject an offer or cancel an agreement, as assent to be charged for goods or services.

Attorney General Doug Peterson is issuing a consumer alert for Nebraskans to be wary of scam text messages. Consumers may be receiving text messages purporting to be from Great Western Bank, warning that their account has been blocked. The message contains a link that opens up a webpage requesting the customer's online banking ID and password. The text and the website may look legitimate, but they are not. This is a fraudulent text message attempting to compromise your online user credentials to gain access to other identifying information. If you receive this unsolicited text message, do not reply or click on the web link and delete it immediately.