Judge Orders $49 Million Fine in Directory Listing Case

A federal judge has ordered two individuals to pay more than $49 million for their role in a Canada-based scheme that allegedly duped American businesses into paying for business directories and listings they did not order, according to the Federal Trade Commission.

Bernard Fromstein and Judy Provencher are the remaining defendants in the 2006 Datacom Marketing Inc. case, which was part of an international effort against cross-border fraud, according to the FTC.

In that earlier case, the FTC charged Datacom Marketing Inc., Datacom Direct Inc. Fromstein, Provencher, Paul Barnard, Judy Neinstein, and Stanley Fromstein with operating call centers in Toronto and Montreal that allegedly falsely represented that: they had an existing business relationship with the call recipients; that they had agreed to purchase business directories or listings and consumers owed money for business directories and/or listings in business directories, the FTC said.

Unlike their co-defendants, the pair did not agree to settlements of the charges against them, said the Commission.

Under a default judgment entered against Fromstein and Provencher on May 7, they are barred from misrepresenting that consumers have a preexisting business relationship, that consumers have agreed to purchase business directories or listings in directories, or that consumers owe money for business directories or listings in directories, according to the FTC.

The pair are also barred from violating the Telemarketing Sales Rule, and from misrepresenting, or failing to disclose, any fact material to a consumer