Welcome to FTC International
Global Integrity | Consumer Protection | Asset Transparency
At FTC International, we work across borders to support individuals and institutions in navigating global regulatory concerns, asset tracing, and investment review. We are committed to fostering international compliance, consumer confidence, and fair trade practices in a rapidly evolving financial world.
Whether you’ve been contacted about a prior financial transaction, need clarification on regulatory status, or are seeking recovery insights, our team is here to assist — with transparency, urgency, and discretion.
What We Do:
Cross-border Asset Verification
Investment Trace & Review
Consumer Assistance and Protection Guidance
Secure Case Resolution Support
Success in getting refunds to people depends principally on whether the FTC has a reliable list of customers, including their contact information and the amount of money they spent. In most of our cases, the FTC has this information, and it mails checks out to a list of known customers. In other cases, there is no list of known customers or there is insufficient contact information, and the agency must use a claims process to identify people who are eligible for a refund. There are at least six steps involved in every refund program:
Identify who is eligible for a refund.
Determine how the money will be divided.
Send refunds.
Update contact information and resend payments, as needed.
Consider whether an additional distribution is feasible.
Send any remaining money to the U.S. Treasury.
Identifying who is eligible for a refund
FTC court orders typically require the company to provide a list of customers, their contact information, and how much each customer paid. If the agency obtains a reliable list of eligible recipients, then the agency mails checks or sends electronic payments directly to them. During calendar year 2024, the FTC used defendant data to send checks and electronic payments in 26 cases.
If the agency doesn’t have all the data it needs to send payments to eligible consumers, a claims process may be necessary. In such cases, the people affected must apply for a refund. The agency might conduct a media campaign and use paid advertisements to let people know that refund money is available and encourage them to visit our website to apply. A claims process typically increases the administrative costs of the refund program. Generally, the FTC receives claims from 5% to 50% of potential claimants. In 2024, the FTC completed a claims process and sent payments in 7 cases.
The agency’s Consumer Sentinel Network database may be used to find eligible recipients, either as a supplement to data from other sources, or occasionally, as the only source of data. Consumer Sentinel data contains millions of complaints from people who have contacted the FTC, the Better Business Bureau, or other federal, state, and local law enforcement offices. The FTC may search for complaints related to the defendants and use the contact information in those complaints to create a list of potential refund recipients. The FTC used Consumer Sentinel complaints as the primary source of data for one case in 2024.
Determining how the money will be divided
In cases where the court order does not specify the parameters of the refund program, FTC staff determines the eligibility criteria and the formula for calculating payments to eligible recipients. In cases where the settlement fund is not large enough to provide full refunds to every customer, the FTC analyzes the data to determine how best to distribute refunds. When making these decisions, FTC staff considers the administrative costs that must be paid for by the fund, the type of harm, the size of the refund to each recipient, how much variation there is between the lowest and highest loss amounts, and other details about the case. In most FTC cases, the money is distributed on a pro rata basis, meaning that each recipient receives an equal percentage of their total loss.
The FTC has many mechanisms in place to verify the accuracy of our distributions and to confirm that only the approved recipients receive payment. First, unique identifiers are assigned to each potential claimant at the beginning of the case. FTC staff independently reviews each distribution, checks the proposed list of recipients against the master list, and investigates any discrepancies before approving a distribution. The agency also conducts payment audits to verify that only the rightful recipients received payments. In a claims process, we may ask for supporting documents or other information, and we apply analytical tools to identify and remove fraudulent or duplicate claims.
Once payments have been sent, the FTC carefully tracks which payments make it into the hands of affected consumers, and the agency uses that information for continuous improvement of our refund processes. In 2024, the FTC sent first round payments in 668 different cases, totaling nearly $715 million.