A group of defendants will pay approximately $10 million to the Federal Trade Commission to settle charges that they operated a massive scam that sent unwanted text messages to millions of consumers, many of whom later received illegal robocalls, phony "free" merchandise offers and unauthorized charges crammed on their mobile phone bills.
The settlement marks the completion of a
The messages contained links to websites that led consumers through a process that the FTC alleges was designed to get consumers personal information for sale to marketers, their mobile phone numbers to cram unwanted charges on their bill, and to drive them to paid subscriptions for which the scammers received affiliate referral fees.
The settlement resolves the FTCs allegations against three groups of defendants:
The
The defendants in this settlement are Acquinity Interactive, LLC; 7657030 Canada Inc., Garry Jonas, Gregory Van Horn, Revenue Path E-Consulting Pvt, Ltd.; Revenuepath Ltd.; and Sarita Somani.
Under the terms of the settlement, these defendants will be banned from sending consumers unwanted text messages, as well as from placing charges of any kind onto a consumers telephone bill, whether landline or mobile.
The settlement also bans the defendants from misrepresenting whether a product is free through a text message or webpage, and also requires the defendants to ensure that any affiliates working for them abide by the same provisions.
The settlement also requires the defendants to obtain consumers express informed consent before billing them and bans them from participating in illegal telemarketing.
"The operators of this scam bombarded consumers for months with deceptive text messages offering free items, but the costs to consumers were very real including the misuse of their personal information to cram unwanted charges on their phone bills," said Jessica Rich, director of the FTCs Bureau of Consumer Protection.
The
The defendants in this group are Burton Katz, individually and also doing business as Polling Associates Inc. and Boomerang International LLC, and Jonathan Smyth, individually and also doing business as Polling Associates Inc.
Under the terms of the settlement, the defendants will be banned from placing charges of any kind on consumers telephone bills, as well as being banned from making any misrepresentations to consumers about a product or service, including the cost or a consumers obligation to pay.
The defendants also must obtain consumers express informed consent before billing them for any good or service.
In the
Under the settlement, the defendants are required to pay the FTC $100,000, as well as the surrender value of a life insurance policy and proceeds from the sale of: a 2013 Cadillac Escalade, two motorcycles, and a real estate holding in Southern California.
The settlement also bans the defendants from illegally telemarketing consumers through robocalling. The defendants in this settlement are Firebrand Group S.L. LLC, Worldwide Commerce Associates LLC and Matthew Beucler.