Victims of Crammer Refunded by FTC

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FTC / Federal Trade CommissionInc21 managed to illegally insert charges on the phone bills of its victims in a variety of ways. It’s been busted and the FTC has paid more than $2.9M to its victims.


It inserted charges for a variety of unauthorized services.

“The FTC alleges that Inc21 used third-party billing aggregators, to place charges on the phone bills of thousands of consumers and businesses that either:
* were never contacted at all;
* were told they were contacted only to verify business information;
* declined Inc21′ s offer of Internet services; or
* were told they would receive a free trial offer, but not informed that they would be charged if they did not cancel.”

In defending itself from charges, the company’s deception was said to have continued. It offered doctored tapes of phone calls, or phone calls with non-customers.

District Court Judge William Alsup, who issued a Temporary Restraining Order, Alsup wrote, “It was Inc21 who orchestrated this overall scheme and set in motion an army of telemarketers who committed fraud. Even if Inc21 did not approve of the fraud (and it seems likely that it did approve), the fact remains that Inc21 is responsible for organizing this engine of fraud and reaping its profits. As such, Inc21 may certainly be held accountable and the engine of fraud may be shut down by court order.”