Five operations, one template, eighteen months
Operation AI Comply, announced in September 2024, brought five FTC actions against businesses selling AI-boosted promises. Three were storefront schemes, Ascend Ecom, FBA Machine and Ecommerce Empire Builders, alleging losses over $25 million, over $15.9 million, and up to $35,000 per consumer. All three later settled with permanent bans on selling business opportunities: Ecommerce Empire Builders by an order entered in May 2025, and Ascend Ecom and FBA Machine through proposed stipulated orders announced in June and July 2025. In December 2025 the Commission reopened and set aside the Rytr order.
- Year
- 2025
- Where
- United States
- Outcome
- Settled
- Reported loss
- $40.9 million
- Victims
- Not stated in the sources
- Schemes
- E-commerce automation and business opportunity schemes, Job and task scams, Celebrity endorsement and deepfake ads
- Last reviewed
- 2026-10-10
The facts, as recorded
- The FTC announced Operation AI Comply on 25 September 2024, a sweep of five actions.
- Ascend Ecom was sued over allegedly false claims that its cutting-edge AI-powered tools would help consumers quickly earn thousands of dollars a month in passive income, with alleged losses over $25 million.
- FBA Machine and Passive Scaling were sued over allegedly guaranteed income through online storefronts using AI-powered software, with alleged losses over $15.9 million.
- Ecommerce Empire Builders was sued over claims of helping consumers build an "AI-powered Ecommerce Empire", with alleged losses of up to $35,000 per consumer.
- Rytr was charged over a "Testimonial & Review" generation service producing detailed reviews containing specific, often material details with no relation to the user's input.
- DoNotPay settled for $193,000 over claims to offer "the world's first robot lawyer" that it could not deliver on.
- The FTC's stated position: using AI tools to trick, mislead or defraud people is illegal, and there is no AI exemption from the laws on the books.
- Ecommerce Empire Builders and its owner agreed to a court order entered on 8 May 2025 that permanently bans them from selling business opportunities and carries a $9,786,124 monetary judgment, partially suspended on inability to pay.
- On 23 June 2025 the FTC announced a proposed stipulated order against Ascend Ecom and its owners: a permanent ban on selling business opportunities and a $25 million judgment, partially suspended on inability to pay.
- On 30 July 2025 the FTC announced a proposed stipulated order against FBA Machine (formerly Passive Scaling) and its owner: a permanent ban and a $15.7 million judgment, partially suspended on inability to pay.
- On 22 December 2025 the FTC voted 2-0 to reopen and set aside the 2024 final order against Rytr, saying the complaint failed to meet the legal requirements of the FTC Act and that the order unduly burdened AI innovation.
- These are allegations except where a settlement or order is recorded; the cases are decided by the courts.
Why this case matters
Line the dates up.
February 2024: Automators AI banned. September 2024: Operation AI Comply charges Ascend Ecom, FBA Machine and Ecommerce Empire Builders. March 2025: Click Profit halted. August 2025: Click Profit’s operators permanently banned.
Five operations in eighteen months, all selling managed e-commerce storefronts as AI-powered passive income. That is not a series of independent frauds. It is a product category, with a template that survives the removal of any individual operator.
The alleged numbers
| Operation | Alleged consumer harm |
|---|---|
| Ascend Ecom | over $25 million |
| FBA Machine / Passive Scaling | over $15.9 million |
| Ecommerce Empire Builders | up to $35,000 per consumer |
Add the $21.8 million judgment against Automators AI and the $14 million taken by Click Profit, and the documented total across five operations approaches $77 million, in a sector almost nobody has heard of.
The two other cases in the sweep
They are not storefront schemes, and they are worth noting because they mark the edges of the same problem.
Rytr sold a “Testimonial & Review” generation service that, per the FTC, produced detailed reviews containing specific material details with no relation to the user’s input. That is the supply side of fake credibility, sold as a product. The order that settled this case was later undone: on 22 December 2025 the Commission voted 2-0 to reopen and set it aside, saying the complaint did not meet the legal requirements of the FTC Act and that the order unduly burdened AI innovation.
DoNotPay settled for $193,000 over claims to be “the world’s first robot lawyer”, a service that could not deliver what it advertised.
Together with the storefront cases, the sweep covers the three ways AI shows up in fraud: as a false explanation for impossible returns, as a tool for manufacturing evidence, and as an overstated capability.
The sentence to keep
There is no AI exemption from the laws on the books.
It is the FTC’s own framing and it settles a genuinely common confusion. An unsubstantiated earnings claim is unlawful whether the mechanism described is a spreadsheet, an algorithm or a large language model. Adding “AI” to a promise does not change what has to be true for the promise to be legal.
The caveat
What is settled: Ecommerce Empire Builders and its owner agreed to a court order entered on 8 May 2025, and Ascend Ecom, FBA Machine and their owners agreed to stipulated orders that the FTC announced as proposed in June and July 2025; the sources reviewed do not show the court’s entry of those two. Each order includes a permanent ban on selling business opportunities and a monetary judgment that is partially suspended because the defendants said they could not pay. The figures in the table above are the FTC’s allegations in the complaints; the settlements do not make them findings. The Rytr order has been set aside, so no order against Rytr now stands. The FTC files a complaint when it has reason to believe a defendant is violating or is about to violate the law. As of 10 October 2026 no later outcome was found in the sources reviewed.
Sources
- FTC Announces Crackdown on Deceptive AI Claims and Schemes. US Federal Trade Commission. Accessed 2026-09-07. Supports: The 25 September 2024 sweep, all five actions and their amounts, the Ascend Ecom, FBA Machine and Ecommerce Empire Builders allegations, the Rytr and DoNotPay matters, and the no-AI-exemption statement.
- FTC Action Ends Ecommerce Empire Builders Online Business Opportunity Scam. US Federal Trade Commission. Accessed 2026-10-10. Supports: The order entered 8 May 2025 against Ecommerce Empire Builders and Peter Prusinowski: the permanent ban and the $9,786,124 partially suspended judgment.
- FTC Case Leads to Order Banning Ascend Ecom and Its Owners from Business Opportunity Marketing. US Federal Trade Commission. Accessed 2026-10-10. Supports: The 23 June 2025 proposed order against Ascend Ecom: the permanent ban and the $25 million partially suspended judgment.
- FTC Obtains Permanent Ban of E-Commerce Business Opportunity Scheme Operator. US Federal Trade Commission. Accessed 2026-10-10. Supports: The 30 July 2025 proposed order against FBA Machine and its owner: the permanent ban and the $15.7 million partially suspended judgment.
- FTC Reopens and Sets Aside Rytr Final Order in Response to the Trump Administration's AI Action Plan. US Federal Trade Commission. Accessed 2026-10-10. Supports: The 22 December 2025 2-0 vote to reopen and set aside the Rytr order and the reasons given.
- FTC Action Leads to Ban for Owners of Automators AI E-Commerce Money-Making Scheme. US Federal Trade Commission. Accessed 2026-09-07. Supports: The February 2024 action against the same template that the sweep went on to charge in three more operations.
- FTC Acts to Stop 'Click Profit' Online Business Opportunity that Has Cost Consumers At Least $14 Million. US Federal Trade Commission. Accessed 2026-09-07. Supports: The March 2025 action continuing the same enforcement line.