DES MOINES - Consumer advocates said Wednesday they hope a new state law giving Iowans the ability to sue unscrupulous businesses will serve as a deterrent to scams that prey on the elderly and other vulnerable Iowans.

Anthony Carroll, AARP Iowa associate state director for advocacy, said the law that took effective Wednesday providing ordinary Iowans for the first time with a private right of action to sue under the state's consumer fraud act hopefully will send a message to potential scammers "to do the right thing" now that consumers have a "new pathway to recovery."

"Until today, Iowans who were consumer fraud victims had little hope of every recovering their losses," said Carroll, in noting that his group plans to embark on a new awareness campaign to appraise its more than 400,000 Iowa members of their new-found rights. The education campaign will include the association's communications channels and newsletters and its www.aarp.org/ia Web site, he said.

Chris Coleman, president of the 3,200-member Better Business Bureau of Greater Iowa, said legitimate businesses in Iowa also welcome the law change that will facilitate trust in the marketplace and hold shoddy entrepreneurs accountable for consumer rip-offs.

"It's a good day to be a consumer in Iowa," he said. "We hope to eliminate the bad businesses so good businesses can thrive and prosper."

State Attorney General Tom Miller said Iowa "stuck out like a sore thumb for years" in being the only state not to give its people a private right of action to sue under the state's consumer fraud act. He applauded state lawmakers and Gov. Chet Culver for helping ordinary interests triumph over special interests.

"This day has been a long time coming - many, many years. We finally got to the promised land and got this bill passed," Miller told a Statehouse news conference.

"The new law makes it much more possible for consumers to get damages and attorney fees if they prevail in a consumer fraud lawsuit," he said. "In the past, even if they were cheated badly and went to court and won, consumers couldn't obtain attorney fees to pay for the cost of the action."