Monday, May 24, 2010

At FTC’s Request, Court Stops Deceptive Telemarketing Calls Pitching Credit Card Interest Rate Reduction

At the request of the Federal Trade Commission, a federal judge has put a stop to three companies’ allegedly deceptive telemarketing calls, including robocalls, that promised to reduce consumers’ credit card interest rates; frozen their assets; and appointed a receiver to take control of the business.

According to the FTC’s complaint, over the past two years, the defendants made or authorized calls to consumers nationwide, claiming that they could negotiate with credit card issuers to substantially lower the interest rates on the consumers’ credit cards. They also allegedly delivered prerecorded “robocalls” that consisted of urgent-sounding messages from “Card Services” or “Financial Services,” stating that consumers needed to “press one” to speak to a representative about their credit card interest rates.

Many consumers believed the calls were from their credit card issuers.
Consumers who signed up for the defendants’ services were charged from $499 to $1,590 up-front and promised their money back if the callers failed to deliver at least $2,500 in interest rate savings, the FTC alleged. Instead of arranging reduced interest rates, the complaint states, the defendants sent consumers instructions to pay down their credit card debts early, thus saving money on interest.

Consumers who complained and demanded refunds allegedly were denied outright, got the run-around, or had a $199 “nonrefundable fee” deducted from their refund.

“The last thing debt-ridden consumers need is to be deluged by illegal robocalls – especially when all the calls are offering is a scam,” said FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz.

The FTC’s complaint alleged that AMS, Rapid Reduction, PDMI, and their owners violated the FTC Act and the Do Not Call and other provisions of the Telemarketing Sales Rule by:
•    deceptively promising consumers they could reduce their credit card interest rates;
•    misleading consumers about their refund policies;
•    illegally calling numbers on the National Do Not Call Registry;
•    failing to honor consumers’ requests not to be called again; and
•    making pre-recorded telemarketing calls to consumers without their express written consent.

Nearly all such calls have been illegal since September 1, 2009 (see press release at:http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2009/08/robocalls.shtm).

U.S. District Judge Lonny Suko has issued an order appointing two receivers to take over the businesses, and freezing the assets of Advanced Management Services NW LLC, doing business as AMS Financial, Rapid Reduction System’s [sic] LLC, and their principals Ryan Bishop and Michael Rohlf, all of Spokane, Washington, and PDM International, Inc., doing business as Priority Direct Marketing International, Inc. (PDMI) of Bedford, Texas, and its principal William Fithian, of Colleyville, Texas.

The FTC vote approving the complaint was 5-0. It was filed under seal in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Washington on May 10, 2010. The court granted an order temporarily barring the alleged conduct on May 10, 2010. The seal was lifted on May 11, 2010, the day the Commission served the temporary restraining order.

The FTC acknowledges the assistance of Better Business Bureau of Eastern Washington, Northern Idaho, and Montana, and the BBB of Fort Worth, Texas, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service; the Bedford, Texas, Police Department; and the attorneys general of Illinois, Minnesota, North Carolina, North Dakota, Washington, and West Virginia. The FTC also acknowledges that the Internal Revenue Service, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the U.S. Secret Service are conducting a separate but parallel criminal investigation and that they executed search warrants on one business and one individual’s home when the FTC served the temporary restraining order.

NOTE: The Commission issues a complaint when it has “reason to believe” that the law has been or is being violated, and it appears to the Commission that a proceeding is in the public interest. The issuance of a complaint is not a finding or ruling that the defendant has violated the law.

Copies of the stipulated final order are available from the FTC’s Web site at http://www.ftc.gov and from the FTC’s Consumer Response Center, Room 130, 600 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20580. The FTC works for the consumer to prevent fraudulent, deceptive, and unfair business practices and to provide information to help spot, stop, and avoid them. To file a complaint in English or Spanish, click:http://www.ftc.gov/ftc/complaint.shtm or call 1-877-382-4357. The FTC enters Internet, telemarketing, identity theft, and other fraud-related complaints into Consumer Sentinel, a secure, online database available to more than 1,800 civil and criminal law enforcement agencies in the U.S. and abroad. For free information on a variety of consumer topics, click http://ftc.gov/bcp/consumer.shtm.

MEDIA CONTACT:
Mitchell J. Katz
Office of Public Affairs
202-326-2161
STAFF CONTACT:
Mary T. Benfield
FTC Northwest Region, Seattle
202-326-4472

The latest series of calls comes from 460-266-8369. Calls have been coming since December 2010 from California, Honolulu, Seattle Washington, New Haven Conneticutt, New Jersey, Arkansas, Arizona. The earliest calls were handled as a dual call pitch. The first caller screened me as a potential client and promised a second call to take credit card numbers and collect a fee.

I discovered a call blocking app for my phone and have collected an extensive list of phone numbers for these folks.

Do not give them your time, money or credit card numbers.

Sometime   ago   I  had  account which  i  closed  with  bank of  America.  I  closed  it.   They  deliberately left  a    $150  residual  deposit  and  charged  me  until  the  account   exhausted  this  sum.
Ripoff   by  bank  of  America Upon  withdrawing  account  they  said  to withdraw  there  would  be  a   20   dollar  charge I  refused.  They  deliberately  withdrew  a  residual  250  dollars  and  charged  me  for  this  amount  until  it  was  exhausted

CAUTION (4001 S. Buckner)
This is just a warning to others to think twice before doing business with Magna Furniture Co.

In my opinion Magna Furniture Co are unscrupulous, greedy, dishonest and discourteous.

I recommend that you do yourself a favor and heed this advice.

I am a middle aged male professional who works in law enforcement. I usually get along with anyone and I am not one to complain too often.
However, I just feel that they do not act like professionals and they do not seem to care about others.

This is just my personal opinion but I would want to know if there are places out there that others have had bad experiences with.

I have written it in a manner that I hope does not offend anyone other than possibly those who own and/or work for Magna Furniture Co.

Peace and Happiness to all.

Complaints filed against Dr. SPELLMAN, JOHN RIDER, LINDA LANTRY and BECKY SHOEMAKER are still in progress. The boards investigating the crimes are keeping in touch and as I receive updates I will pass them along. The book is coming along as well. It is a daunting task with all the different answers I received during the depositions of these criminals.

I am receiving a lot of help because of the brain injury I incurred from the unauthorized injection of John Rider during the MRI test Linda Lantry was performing without supervision of a trained and qualified physician present. Dr. Spellman claimed he was supervising technicians. He was in another building, another address and another business and Dominican lied again stating he was supervising. The photo shows my arm after the illegal injection.

The manufacturer warns of tissue damage if incorrectly injected. Technician Rider knew he was breaking the law and was trying to inject me before being caught. He did not use care injecting me with the unauthorized contrast injection.
More evidence being mailed Monday.

Did you know that the Oakland Police Dept did not show any solidarity towards the Oakland Public Works employees when they were going through their budget cuts?

There were 300 public works employees that were laid off and 10% concessions made by public works employees along with mandatory furlough days. In addition, the public works employees must pay 8% towards their retirement.

Do you think this is fair that the Oakland Police Dept has not made any concessions through this economic turmoil but everyone has? Also did you know that the Oakland Mayor is unwilling to take a reduction in pay because he states that it creates a hardship?

What happened to “united we stand?”

Reply to: cecewells2000@yahoo.com

I have been ripped off by DailyWealth Premium.
my order number 1049560
promotion code MDWPL400.

I am being charged $5.00 each month, but to date have received nothing, nada, zilch.
thanks for nothing.

These guys are sleaze. Vocus.com took us for 4000$ which we are currently trying to get back from our credit card company. Vocus insisted that we needed this in order to make a good online reputation.

How could I be so gullible? The ad I got from vocus.com was a joke. The promise was to push back some negative and untrue stories. When we asked what has been done to do that, no one could ever tell us.

I could lip-sync their replies after a while.

I have a big time issue with NetSmartz.net. This is the worst company I have ever worked with. Net Smartz is condescending, disrespectful, and they do not know how to do SEO work! simply as that. They make you promises and talk the big talk but, do not follow through and NOT ONE PROMISE is kept.

Unfortunately you’ve already lost thousands of dollars by then, trusting all the hog wash and excuses. We have lost money with NetSmartz, and NO, they don’t have a money back guarantee.

I recently had lasik at Dr. Harvey Carter and my eyes feel like they have been burnt, as if I have been staring at a bright welding rod all day. I have pain when I sleep as well but it’s the worst when I am trying to read or working on the computer. Eyes don’t seem to want to work together.

I’m worried that I will have these problems for the rest of my life, I now have problems walking down a hall with blurry vision, I did not have this before even without glasses. These things can go bad, done through private clinics that only have “making money in mind” and not always in the patients best interest.

Harvey Carter Eye Center that did my eyes did not bother to tell me ahead of time that my large pupil size was a serious threat to my night vision. I feel like such an idiot for putting my trust in people that were not qualified enough to deserve it. Qualifications that I feel were lacking were both technical and honesty. The bottom line for Harvey Carter is the dollar.