Phone Card Scam – Minutes Not Included

by Sonya Smith-Valentine, Valentine Legal Group on August 10, 2010

A New York City company is accused of ripping of immigrants through the sale of fraudulent international calling cards.  The company will pay a $500,000 fine and has to stop running the scam.

Diamond Phone Card sold cards to hundreds of newsstands and grocery stores promising minutes that weren’t delivered.  They also failed to tell buyers about the hidden fees according to the FTC’s complaint. 

The phone cards were marketed for calls to countries in Latin America, Asia, Africa and the Carribean.  The phone cards were sold to stores in several states including New Jersey, Connecticut and Texas.  The cards had names like “Oops”, “DJ”, “N”, and “Karive”. 

According to the FTC, the $2 Oops card advertised 50 minutes to Guatemala but only delivered 20 minutes.  The $2 N card promised 400 minutes to Mexico City but only delivered 106 minutes. 

Victims could not be located because no records were kept of who purchased the cards.

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David Faith Corporation Barred From Collecting Debts in Colorado

by Sonya Smith-Valentine, Valentine Legal Group on August 2, 2010

The Colorado Attorney General has issued an order barring the David Faith Corporation from collecting debts in Colorado. According to the order, the company engaged in fraudulent and threatening debt collection practices that are barred under Colorado law and attempted to collect debts prior to obtaining a license from the state. The company’s owner also lied on the company’s application to become a licensed debt collection agency concerning his criminal history.  The order denies the David Faith Corporation’s application for a debt collection license and bars the company and its owners from starting any other debt collection firm in the state.

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Connecticut Sues Insurance Company Over Data Breach

July 30, 2010

The Connecticut Attorney General has sued Health Net, claiming the insurance company failed to adequately protect the medical records of 446,000 customers whose private data was contained in a computer disk drive that was found to be missing last spring.
The lawsuit says that Health Net waited six months before notifying customers of the data breach.
The company [...]

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Hard Drive Stolen From Kentucy Hospital With Patient Data

July 22, 2010

A Kentucky hospital is notifying 5,000 patients of a data breach that occurred when computer equipment containing patient information was stolen from its mammography suite. Hospital officials reported that the information on the hard drive was not encrypted, but was maintained in a locked, non-public area.
Officials at The Medical Center at Bowling Green said the stolen equipment [...]

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Military Members Target of Credit Scam

July 14, 2010

New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo filed a lawsuit against three lenders and their affiliated companies for targeting members of the military by selling them high-priced electronics, then luring them into illegal credit plans.
The suit names Frisco Marketing of New York LLC, doing business as SmartBuy and SmartBuy Computers and Electronics; Integrity Financial of North [...]

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Licensing Rules Clarified by Maryland for Debt Purchasers

July 6, 2010

The Maryland State Collection Agency Licensing Board (CALB) released an advisory notice clarifying licensing requirements for debt purchasers that collect debts by filing lawsuits.
The notice acknowledges a June 2007 letter provided by CALB may have created confusion over licensing requirements for debt purchasers who collect only through litigation. The notice clarifies that a debt purchaser who collects [...]

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New Debt Collection Rules for New York City

June 28, 2010

New York City announced new collection regulations designed to stop abusive collection tactics.
The regulations state that any collection agency attempting to collect from a New York City resident must provide proof the debt is owed at the consumer’s request. The collector must offer a copy of the original debt documentation, a copy of the final account [...]

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Deceptive Credit Card Telemarketing Calls Stopped by Judge

June 25, 2010

A federal judge has put a stop to three companies’ allegedly deceptive telemarketing calls, including robocalls, that promised to reduce consumers’ credit card interest rates.
According to the FTC, over the past two years, the companies made calls to consumers claiming that they could negotiate with credit card issuers to substantially lower the interest rates on the [...]

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Bank of America Leads April Chargeoffs

June 17, 2010

Bank of America had the highest reported rate of credit card delinquencies and charged-off the greatest percentage of its credit card loans in April, according to SEC filings by six major consumer credit card issuers.
Bank of America had the highest rate of total delinquencies at 6.73 percent of all credit card accounts. Bank of America [...]

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Credit Repair & Mortgage Relief Firms Ordered to Pay $7.5 Million

June 9, 2010

A federal court has eight companies from selling credit repair and mortgage relief services and ordered them to pay more than $7.5 million for deceiving consumers.
The Federal Trade Commission charged seven companies with making false promises that they would improve consumers’ credit scores by removing negative information such as late payments, chargeoffs, collection information, delinquencies, [...]

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