A company that allegedly sent bills to consumers for services they did not order has agreed to settle Federal Trade Commission charges that the scheme violated federal law.
TelCollect Inc. is barred from billing consumers without their consent and is required to monitor the actions of vendors it uses.
In May 2003, the FTC charged TelCollect — working on behalf of Alyon Technologies Inc., and its principal, Stephane Touboul — with illegally billing consumers for adult videotext services purportedly accessed online. According to the FTC, Alyon downloaded a dialing program onto consumers’ computers, allegedly after consumers clicked on a button to agree to the terms for the download.
The dialing program then disconnected consumers’ Internet connections and reconnected them to the defendants’ network. Consumers were billed $4.99 for each minute they had supposedly purchased the services, regardless of whether they had authorized the purchase.
The FTC’s complaint said TelCollect was responsible for collecting on past-due payments, allegedly sending bills to consumers on company letterhead. TelCollect also was responsible for answering a toll-free hotline number listed on some of the allegedly delinquent bills.
Last December, Alyon and Stephane Touboul settled FTC charges and dropped their claim to more than $17 million in consumer bills.
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