By ONME Newswire
In this episode of News Too Real: Child Tax-Credit Updates and Consumer Fraud Protection Part 2, producer host Julia Dudley Najieb features Federal Trade Commission (FTC) experts Monica Vaca and Rosario Mendez. The FTC recently released a full report called “Serving Communities of Color.” The report reveals differences in the way that fraud and other consumer problems affect communities of color.
The FTC expert speakers highlight how majority Latino and Black communities report more issues with car buying, banks and lenders, credit issues and debt collection than do white communities. They also review fraud cases the FTC has won for the public over the last five years where the unlawful conduct either targeted or disproportionately affected communities of color, (i.e., Amazon Flex, Blessings in No Time .)
Monica Vacais associate director for the Division of Consumer Response and Operations in the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection.
Between 2002 and 2016, Ms. Vaca litigated or supervised litigation against companies and individuals charged with engaging in fraudulent or deceptive practices.
In 2011, Monica received the Wasserstein Fellowship from Harvard Law School’s Office of Public Interest Advising. Ms. Vaca began her career by clerking for the Honorable John F. Grady in the northern district of Illinois, and later, by serving as an Equal Justice Fellow at the Legal Assistance Foundation of Chicago. She is a graduate of Northwestern University School of Law (cum laude, Order of the Coif) and the University of Virginia.
Rosario Mendez is an attorney for the Division of Consumer & Business Education in the FTC.
Previously she was the program manager for Government Relations and Financial Literacy at the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities, senior legislative counsel at the Puerto Rico Federal Affairs Administration, and counsel to the Board of Directors at the Puerto Rico Aqueduct & Sewer Authority.
She received her JD in law from the New Orleans College of Law at Loyola University, her MBA in marketing from Carey Business School at Johns Hopkins University, and her BA in economics from the University of Rochester.
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