A U.S. district court, acting at the request of the Federal
Trade Commission (FTC), has approved a settlement
shutting down two groups of Florida-based telemarketers that allegedly flooded
consumers with misleading recorded robocalls falsely promising to reduce
their credit card interest rates.
The settlement permanently bans the two related operations
from making robocalls and selling debt relief services. The orders are the
latest in a series of enforcement actions the FTC has taken to rein in
robocallers -- especially those who try to take advantage of consumers affected
by the economic downturn.
Scammers at work
According to the FTC, JPM Accelerated Services and related
defendants made thousands of illegal recorded robocalls to consumers,
identifying themselves only as "card services" and offering lower credit card
interest rates.
Consumers who pressed "1" after hearing the automated
pitch were transferred to live telemarketers who falsely told consumers that
JPM's services would allow them to lower their credit card
interest rates dramatically.
The telemarketers charged an up-front fee typically ranging
from $495 to $995, according to the complaint, and promised consumers they
would save thousands of dollars in a short period of time as a result of the
lower interest rates, and that they would be able to pay off their debts
faster. The defendants also falsely stated that if consumers did not save
thousands of dollars from lowered interest rates, they would receive a full
refund of the up-front fee.
After collecting the fee from consumers, however, JPM
allegedly failed to deliver the promised interest rate reductions and savings,
and routinely refused to honor its money-back guarantee. The FTC complaint also
charged the defendants with violating the Telemarketing Sales Rule by calling
consumers on the Do Not Call Registry, blocking or "spoofing" caller ID and making
unlawful robocalls.
Restitution ordered
The settlement orders also impose judgments of $5.9 million
against defendants associated with JPM, and $3.2 million against six individual
defendants associated with an affiliated operation called IXE Accelerated
Financial Centers, LLC. The judgments, representing the amount of money consumers
lost through these robocall schemes, are suspended, based on the
defendants' inability to pay< But, they will become due if the defendants are found
to have misrepresented their financial condition.
Two of the defendants in the IXE operation, Ivan X. Estrella
and Jaime Hawley, also are liable for an unsatisfied $75,000 judgment recently
entered against them in a case brought by the Florida Attorney General.
The orders were filed in the U.S. District Court for Middle
District of Florida, Orlando Division on November 9, 2010, against: 1) Ivan X.
Estrella, Jamie M. Hawley, and Kimberly Nelson; and 2) Jeanie B. Robertson,
Brooke Robertson, Alexander J. Dent, Micha S. Romano, Paul Pietrzak, and Ashley
M. Westbrook. Estrella, Hawley, and Nelson worked with the IXE corporate
defendants listed below.
The rest of the individual defendants worked with the JPM
corporate defendants. At the FTC's request, the court also has dismissed the
charges against Paige Dent.
Corporate defendants
The court is reviewing the FTC's request for a default
judgment against the corporate defendants in this case, including the IXE
corporate defendants (IXE Accelerated Financial Centers, LLC; and IXE
Accelerated Services Inc.), and the JPM corporate defendants (JPM Accelerated
Services Inc.; IXE Accelerated Service Centers Inc.; MGA Accelerated Services
Inc.; World Class Savings Inc.; Accelerated Savings Inc.; and B&C Financial
Group Inc.). The proposed default judgment includes monetary judgments of $3.2
million against the IXE corporations, based in Orlando, Florida, and $5.9
million against the JPM corporations, based in Melbourne, Florida.
International Cooperation
The FTC brought this action with assistance from other law enforcement agencies in the U.S. and Canada, including: the U.S. Postal Inspection Service; the Attorney General of Florida; the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Affairs; the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission; and the Toronto Strategic Partnership, which includes as member agencies the Competition Bureau Canada; the Toronto Police Service Fraud Squad - Mass Marketing Section; the Ontario Provincial Police Anti-Rackets Section; the Ontario Ministry of Consumer Services; the Royal Canadian Mounted Police; and the United Kingdom's Office of Fair Trading. Assistance also was provided by the Better Business Bureau of Central Florida.
