Investigations are underway into 77 Australian-based Web sites identified as suspicious because of their claims about health-related products or services.

Part of an international sweep which uncovered 1400 suspicious sites, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) is looking into those which are based in this country.

Other Asia Pacific countries included in the sweep were Japan (240 sites regarded as suspicious); Korea (137 sites); and New Zealand (63 sites).

Sitesh Bhojani, an ACCC commissioner, and president of the International Marketing Supervision Network (IMSN) which conducted the sweep, said initially the ACCC could issue warnings to the Web site owners based in Australia.

If the claims made on these Web sites were not able to be substantiated, the ACCC may take administrative action. Alternatively, it could take the matter to court under the Trade Practices Act for false, misleading, or deceptive conduct.

Bhojani said that in previous sweeps it has found that about 25 percent of the Web sites were shut down by the owners after being issued with a warning from the ACCC.

-Consumer protection laws apply for goods sold on the Internet as they do for any goods or services sold by any other medium," Bhojani said.

According to Bhojani, the other reason for focussing on the health sector was that consumers could be particularly vulnerable. -It's an important area from a consumer's perspective," he said. -You have people preying on people's illnesses, low self-esteem or confidence, and people offering miracle cures."

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