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

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

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.

We want them to know that the borderless Internet marketplace is not a free zone. Together with our partners, we are putting get-rich-quick schemes on notice that we're monitoring the Web and that we intend to take law enforcement action against those that continue to make fraudulent or deceptive claims.