FTC’s Consumer Center
How long has this link been down? Is there an explanation as to why it is down?
Update: Found this notice from late January that large parts of the FTC are suspended. Status of FTC Online Services During 2026 Lapse in Funding | Federal Trade Commission.
I guess “Will be back up shortly” may be wishful thinking on my part.
I’m confused, as the link in the OP worked fine for me, so even if it was down earlier, it wasn’t for long.
And all I get is “Sorry, consumer.ftc.gov is down for maintenance. It will be back up shortly.”
Can they do a partial block?
I remember another recent thread about someone unable to access a government website. I think the issue there was that the person was using a VPN service, which was preventing the site from loading.
I don’t.
In that case, I have no idea why you’re not able to access that website.
I’m not even in the US (in Canada) but I can access the site just fine.
Sometimes there are internet routing problems that affect some sites but not others. If you’re on Windows try a “tracert” to that URL and see how far it gets you.
You could also try loading the link in a new Incognito (for Chrome), Private (Safari) Window or whatever the equivalent is for your browser of choice to possibly eliminate any caching or cookie based problems. For what it’s worth, the url is loading fine for me as well.
Private or incognito doesn’t work. Cell phone has different browser (Chrome) but gives same result as the browser (Edge) on my home computer. Roomie’s cell phone works for that site, though.
It’s down for me too. Maybe there’s a CDN or server issue for certain networks along the way.
You can view the Way Back Machine’s March archive of it:
I got a page about debt and deceased relatives.
It works fine on my phone too. Just not my home wifi.
If I remember correctly, both Czarcasm and I are in Oregon? I wonder if it’s something specific to a regional network, maybe an ISP like TDS?
About an hour ago I was getting the maintenance message, but now on the same device on the same network, the page is working normally. So either the problem has been fixed, or it’s intermittent.
Working for me now.