Prepaid Phone Card Marketers Agree to Pay $2.32 Million to Settle Charges
19.05.12
An operation that marketed prepaid calling cards to immigrants has agreed to pay $2.32 million as part of a settlement to resolve Federal Trade Commission charges that they made false claims to consumers about the number of minutes of talk time their prepaid calling cards would deliver.
The settlement is part of an ongoing FTC effort to address deceptive advertising and marketing practices in the prepaid calling card industry, which sells billions of dollars worth of cards a year, many of them to immigrants who depend on them to call friends and family in other countries. It resolves claims brought by the FTC against defendants Millennium Telecard, Inc.; Millenium Tele Card, LLC; Coleccion Latina, Inc.; Telecard Center USA, Inc.; and their principal Fadi Salim.
In May, 2011, the FTC filed a complaint in U.S. District Court in New Jersey, charging that the defendants targeted immigrants using calling cards with names such as "Africa Magic," "Hola Amigo," and "Viva Ecuador." According to the FTC complaint, the defendants' prepaid calling cards are sold directly to consumers over the Internet using their own websites. The cards also are sold at newsstands, grocery and convenience stores, and kiosks nationwide. In addition, the defendants own stores in New Jersey where they sell prepaid calling cards on a retail and wholesale basis.
[ Via: Statesboro Business News | Read more... ]