A federal judge has temporarily halted, and frozen the assets of, a Montreal operation that bilked more than $14 million from small businesses and churches in the U.S. for unwanted listings in online business directories.
The Federal Trade Commission seeks to permanently stop the operation and make the defendants return the victims money. The scheme has generated more than 13,000 complaints from consumers. In some cases, the defendants said they were calling in response to a cancellation request, and asked to verify the organizations contact information to confirm the cancellation. In fact, the defendants had no prior relationship with the consumers.
The bills sent by the defendants averaged $500 or more and had a "walking fingers" image often associated with a local yellow pages directory. Some consumers paid, thinking someone in their organization had ordered these listings. Other consumers paid after the defendants used partially recorded phone conversations with consumers who had verified their contact information to convince them that they had a binding oral contract with the defendants, according to the FTCs complaint.
Consumers who ignored the bills or refused to pay received collection calls and dunning notices, often with added interest charges, late fees, and legal fees, as well as threats of collection agency referral, credit rating damage, and legal action. To make consumers believe third-party collectors were involved, the defendants created two collection companies, CC Recovery and M&A Recovery, which also made threats. The defendants' threats convinced many consumers to pay the bills, the FTC alleged.
Hiding behind borders to scam churches and small businesses is a tactic that weve seen before, said Jessica Rich, director of the FTCs Bureau of Consumer Protection. Scammers need to know that we have great relationships with our law enforcement partners in Canada and, as this case shows, we can and will work together to protect our consumers.
The defendants operated from Montreal, using corporate shells and mail drops in the U.S. to hide their actual location. Typically, they made phone calls pretending they were verifying contact information to update or confirm existing directory listings, according to court papers filed by the FTC.
The FTCs complaint alleges that the defendants violated the FTC Act by misrepresenting that they had a preexisting business relationship with consumers, that consumers had agreed to buy directory listings, and that consumers owed them money.
The defendants include: Mohamad Khaled Kaddoura, Derek Cessford and Aaron Kirby and the 15 companies they ran. Those companies include: Modern Technology Inc., also doing business as Online Local Yellow Pages; Strategic Advertisement Ltd., also d/b/a Local Business Yellow Pages; Dynamic Ad Corp., also d/b/a Yellow National Directory and Yellowpages Local Directory; Wisetak Inc., also d/b/a Online Public Yellow Pages and US Public Yellow Pages; Wisetak, Inc., also d/b/a Online Public Yellow Pages and US Public Yellow Pages; Internet Solutions LLC, also d/b/a Public Yellow Pages; Yellow Pages Express Inc., also d/b/a Yellow Pages Express; Yellow Pages Online Inc., also d/b/a Yellow Pages Online; CessTech Inc., also d/b/a Yellow US Pages; SEO Online Inc., also d/b/a Yellow Local Directory; SEO Online LLC; SEOOnline, also d/b/a Public Yellow Pages; SEM Pundits Inc., also d/b/a Yellow Pages Online; CC Recovery Corporation, also d/b/a CC Recovery; and M&A Recovery Inc., also d/b/a MA Recovery.
