After DECADES of bait-n-switch consumer electronics scams, the Attorney General of the great state of New York has shut down or crippled the worst of the worst, consumer electronics retail scammers, including Camera Wiz, Sonic Photo, Best Price Camera, Foto Connection, 1 Way Photo, 86th Street Photo and Broadway Photo, LLC (ugh, my gag reflex kicked in just writing that list - and there are about 100 aliases, too). We've covered this topic in text and video here at videopia.org, but these scams go back much further and so it's about time that someone did something about this.

“These companies engaged in the worst kinds of consumer fraud, from classic bait-and-switch schemes to blatant lies and bullying sales tactics,” said Attorney General Andrew Cuomo. “Today’s agreements will protect consumers nationwide from these types of predatory online merchants, as well as deliver much-needed restitution to hundreds of individuals who fell victim to these illegal practices. Let this be a message to online merchants everywhere: such abuse of consumers and violation of the law will not be tolerated.”

So the question remains: Will these clowns now pack up their phone banks and move across the river? Hard to say without taking a survey of the situation on a state-by-state basis, but other states have had laws in place for many decades now. "Bait and switch sales tactics have long been prohibited by Michigan's Deceptive Advertising Law and the Consumer Protection Act enacted in 1976," according to the author of that Act, Michigan Assistant Attorney General-in-Charge of the Consumer Protection Division Edward M. Bladen, Esq. With any luck, Michigan's pioneering 33-year old law represents the norm and not the exception.

References:
* ATTORNEY GENERAL CUOMO SECURES AGREEMENTS WITH SEVEN ELECTRONICS
COMPANIES IN NEW YORK FOR USING ILLEGAL ONLINE BUSINESS PRACTICES TO
SCAM CONSUMERS NATIONWIDE, (colossally poorly formatted, but original source material from gov_wire, I'll update this with a primary source when the OAG-NY does)
* h/t to Jeff Whitley for posting this first!