<\/p>\n
<\/a>By Evelyn Wong, NCL Public Policy Intern<\/strong><\/p>\n The Federal Trade Commission this week announced<\/a> that it has pulled the plug on a multi-million dollar cross-border telemarketing scam operation that can be traced back to 2009.\u00a0The FTC\u2019s complaint against First Consumers, LLC, Standard American Marketing, Inc., and PowerPlay Industries LLC alleges that the companies used telemarketing boiler rooms in Canada to \u201ccold call\u201d tens and thousands of consumers claiming to sell fraud protection, legal protection, and pharmaceutical benefits services.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n These unsolicited services would often charge anywhere between $187 to $397. Between May 2011 and December 2013 the scheme brought in $20 million.<\/p>\n The defendants are said to have targeted senior citizens who were given false information and were compelled to reveal their bank account information. The scammers used scare tactics and sometimes even went so far as to impersonate bankers and government officials. The account information would then be used to create \u201cremote checks\u201d drawn on the consumers\u2019 bank accounts. These remotely created checks were then deposited into a network of corporate accounts established in the United States. The U.S. based defendants then transferred money to the Canadian accounts.<\/p>\n The Internet has certainly become a haven for scam artists, but this case is a reminder that consumers need to be on guard for scammers contacting them via the \u201cold-fashioned\u201d telephone. In fact, according to\u00a0Fraud.org\u2019s 2013 Top Ten Scams report<\/a>, the telephone was the most-frequent way that consumers reported being contacted by scammers in 2013.<\/p>\n Tips to avoid being a victim of telemarketing scams include:<\/strong><\/p>\n By Evelyn Wong, NCL Public Policy Intern The Federal Trade Commission this week announced that it has pulled the plug on a multi-million dollar cross-border telemarketing scam operation that can […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"_price":"","_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_header":"","_tribe_default_ticket_provider":"","_tribe_ticket_capacity":"0","_ticket_start_date":"","_ticket_end_date":"","_tribe_ticket_show_description":"","_tribe_ticket_show_not_going":false,"_tribe_ticket_use_global_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_global_stock_level":"","_global_stock_mode":"","_global_stock_cap":"","_tribe_rsvp_for_event":"","_tribe_ticket_going_count":"","_tribe_ticket_not_going_count":"","_tribe_tickets_list":"[]","_tribe_ticket_has_attendee_info_fields":false},"categories":[25],"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nclnet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2425"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nclnet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nclnet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nclnet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nclnet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2425"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/nclnet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2425\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20141,"href":"https:\/\/nclnet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2425\/revisions\/20141"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nclnet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2425"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nclnet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2425"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nclnet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2425"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
![<\/a>By Evelyn Wong, NCL Public Policy Intern<\/strong><\/p>\nThe Federal Trade Commission this week announced<\/a> that it has pulled the plug on a multi-million dollar cross-border telemarketing scam operation that can be traced back to 2009.\u00a0The FTC\u2019s complaint against First Consumers, LLC, Standard American Marketing, Inc., and PowerPlay Industries LLC alleges that the companies used telemarketing boiler rooms in Canada to \u201ccold call\u201d tens and thousands of consumers claiming to sell fraud protection, legal protection, and pharmaceutical benefits services.<\/p>\n<\/p>\nThese unsolicited services would often charge anywhere between $187 to $397. Between May 2011 and December 2013 the scheme brought in $20 million.<\/p>\nThe defendants are said to have targeted senior citizens who were given false information and were compelled to reveal their bank account information. The scammers used scare tactics and sometimes even went so far as to impersonate bankers and government officials. The account information would then be used to create \u201cremote checks\u201d drawn on the consumers\u2019 bank accounts. These remotely created checks were then deposited into a network of corporate accounts established in the United States. The U.S. based defendants then transferred money to the Canadian accounts.<\/p>\nThe Internet has certainly become a haven for scam artists, but this case is a reminder that consumers need to be on guard for scammers contacting them via the \u201cold-fashioned\u201d telephone. In fact, according to\u00a0Fraud.org\u2019s 2013 Top Ten Scams report<\/a>, the telephone was the most-frequent way that consumers reported being contacted by scammers in 2013.<\/p>\nTips to avoid being a victim of telemarketing scams include:<\/strong><\/p>\n\nNever give out sensitive personal information such as Social Security Numbers, bank account numbers or credit\/debit account numbers in response to an unsolicited telephone call.<\/li>\nTelemarketing scammers will often try to pressure the person on the other end into making a quick decision. Remember, if it sounds like a good deal today, then you should be able to take the time to research it thoroughly.<\/li>\nBe wary of any telemarketer who requests payment via wire transfer, cash or prepaid card.<\/li>\nInformation on spotting telemarketing scams targeting seniors is available at\u00a0\u201cThey Can\u2019t Hang Up,\u201d\u00a0a joint educational initiative between NCL and AARP.<\/li>\nFor more tips from Fraud.org on spotting telemarketing scams,\u00a0click here<\/a>.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Evelyn Wong, NCL Public Policy Intern The Federal Trade Commission this week announced that it has pulled the plug on a multi-million dollar cross-border telemarketing scam operation that can […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"_price":"","_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_header":"","_tribe_default_ticket_provider":"","_tribe_ticket_capacity":"0","_ticket_start_date":"","_ticket_end_date":"","_tribe_ticket_show_description":"","_tribe_ticket_show_not_going":false,"_tribe_ticket_use_global_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_global_stock_level":"","_global_stock_mode":"","_global_stock_cap":"","_tribe_rsvp_for_event":"","_tribe_ticket_going_count":"","_tribe_ticket_not_going_count":"","_tribe_tickets_list":"[]","_tribe_ticket_has_attendee_info_fields":false},"categories":[25],"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nclnet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2425"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nclnet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nclnet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nclnet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nclnet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2425"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/nclnet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2425\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20141,"href":"https:\/\/nclnet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2425\/revisions\/20141"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nclnet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2425"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nclnet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2425"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nclnet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2425"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}](\"https:\/\/savvyconsumer.files.wordpress.com\/2014\/02\/ew.jpg\"){kind=link}