SEARCH NEWS:

 

Federal Trade Commission Wins 'Cramming' Case against Web Business

The Web site operators, a married couple and a handful of accomplices living in Malibu, California, were charged with obtaining credit card lists from a California bank and illegally billing the cards of thousands of consumers - many of whom didn't even have Internet access - according to the FTC.

The scammers obtained access to the lists legally, a common practice for companies that need to verify the validity of their customers' cards, but rather than use the lists for those purposes, the Web site operators simply ran up charges on consumers' cards, apparently at random, according to the FTC.

The $37.5 million judgment represents the sum that the scammers took from consumers, minus the amount consumers already got back through credit card charge-backs, FTC spokesperson Claudia Bourne Farrell said.

In addition to the financial damages, the verdict, handed down by a US District Court Judge, levels a handful of sanctions against the operators themselves, preventing one of the members of the fraud ring from operating a business that deals in credit card transactions for ten years.

Farrell also confirmed that a handful of the scammers are either serving time for or facing criminal charges stemming from their operations.

Consumers who were bilked in the scam can contact the court appointed receiver in the case by sending e-mail to rea@robbevans.com.

Reported by Newsbytes, www.newsbytes.com.

< Gaming News