In short, they sold dream vacations that turned out to be nightmares. Hundreds of unwary consumers got caught in the odious trip trap.

Vacations are getting longer and the trend towards short trips is over.

It's an old trick dressed up in new electronic garb and a sort of cyberspace jargon.

Many retailers ended up looking more like Scrooge than Santa.

We don't intend to let a handful of rogues erode consumer confidence in Internet commerce or Internet auctions.

It's an amazing and diverse team. Fraud fighters from the U.K. to Uruguay, from Korea to Kansas, have collected and forwarded information to the FTC on more than 1,600 suspect sites.