The Federal Trade Commission has settled a complaint alleging that marketers misled thousands of consumers into paying $480 apiece for worthless medical billing work-at-home business opportunity.
Work-at home schemes ranked No. 2 during the first half of the year on the National Fraud Information Center’s list of Top Ten Telemarketing Frauds, followed by credit card offers and sweepstakes prizes.
The settlement is the second law enforcement action of its type in the last three weeks, the FTC said.
The FTC alleged that Nevada-based Electronic Processing Services Inc., and its principal David Steward, defrauded consumers by misrepresenting their relationship with physicians, how willing those physicians would be to sign up for medical billing help and what consumers could expect to earn by working at home. The complaint was filed as part of the FTC’s Operation Dialing for Deception anti-telemarketing fraud law enforcement sweep.
“Companies claiming that consumers can make easy money rarely deliver on their promise,” said Howard Beales, III, director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection. “Unfortunately, the purveyors of fraudulent medical billing work-at-home scams continue to trap unwary consumers in their web of misrepresentations. We urge all consumers to look very carefully at these pitches before spending their hard-earned money.”
In addition to a number of terms, the order requires the defendants to pay $23,400 in redress, plus an estimated $5,000 from merchant account reserves.
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