Discover Bank telemarketers selling identity-theft and credit-score monitoring services fail to tell consumers when they are agreeing to purchase those products, Minnesota Attorney General Lori Swanson claims in a lawsuit.
The credit card bank, a unit of Discover Financial Services, reaped more than $300 million in revenue last year from selling those products, Swanson said Monday in an announcement of the filing of the suit in Minneapolis.
"It is particularly ironic for credit card companies like Discover to charge people's accounts for optional fee-based products without their informed consent because the credit card company touts its fraud prevention capabilities," she said.
Discover Bank and Riverwoods, Ill.-based Discover Financial are each named as defendants in the lawsuit, which Swanson said seeks injunctive relief, civil penalties and restitution.
Matt Towson, a spokesman for the company, said he could not immediately comment on the suit.
