Ten websites that imitated California's official healthcare exchange site have been shutdown, California Attorney General Kamala Harris said in a statement Thursday.
The websites were operated by private health insurance brokers and companies, and used similar URLs to the official covered.ca website and the official exchange's trademarked logo.
"These websites fraudulently imitated Covered California in order to lure consumers away from plans that provide the benefits of the Affordable Care Act," Harris said in a statement. "My office will continue to investigate and shut down these kinds of sites. I urge Californians to avoid healthcare scams by visiting coveredca.com."
California law prohibits falsely imply a governmental connection, using a domain name that is confusingly similar to another entity and making or disseminating untrue or misleading representations with the intent of selling goods or services.
All websites contacted by the Attorney General's office have complied and either shut down or redirected to the official California healthcare exchange website.