Fone Fleecing
It's nice to see the crooks get theirs, especially the ones who are so blatant in their fraud. Even those who perpetrate their misdeeds against the mindlessly stupid. Darwin has a right to cull the herd, and indeed, his plate is full to overflowing with candidates, but individuals should not profit in their complicity.
Take the case of Youree Dell Harris, better known at "Miss Cleo," the infamous television psychic who offered super-natural glimpses into peoples lives, for a considerable fee. The collectors of those fees were two Florida companies which were also behind a national network of "psychic readers," both on television and the Internet. They made a billion dollars at it. Until the FTC, responding to thousands of complaints, got 'em in their crosshairs.
The actual complaints were mostly about false advertising and using the telephone to harass customers. The companies were also accused of using tricky billing systems to further bilk their customers. They were forced to forgive $500 million in customer bills, return all uncashed checks, and pay the feds a $5 million fine. In addition to ending their telephone-based scam.
The two owners have settled similar cases with eight other states for sums in the millions, and were fined and put on probation in a ninth for unlawful merchandising practices, so it's difficult to tell how much money of the remaining roughly $500 million they were able to keep. Their attorney of course said they'd done nothing illegal, and so somehow they were allowed to continue a credit card-based psychic reading subscription service. That represents about one percent of the game they used to charge customers through their telephone bills, not an inconsiderable sum.
The way they played it, people called a toll-free number, and were then told to call a 900 number, where they were dinged at a rate of $4.99 a minute. Operators kept them on line for as long as possible, telling them they wouldn't be charged while on hold. The fools soon parted from their money didn't realize they'd been seriously taken until they got their phone bills.
According to the FTC, nearly six million people called the scam line, dropping an average of $60 a pop. The feds said the companies violated telemarketing rules by calling people on a "do not call" list, adding that many consumers received up to ten calls a day, usually from machines, telling them "Miss Cleo had a dream about them and they should call back."
Miss Cleo, by the way, still has a civil suit against her, so she's not owning up to her part in the scam, but she's gonna get hers, too, probably, as the state of Florida picks up where the federal government has left off. During a deposition last summer, when asked questions about her place of birth, the purported Jamaican mystic pleaded the Fifth Amendment against self-incrimination. Word has it that she was born in Los Angeles -- surprise, surprise -- to American parents. Said the FTC guy, "I'm no psychic but I can foresee this: If you make deceptive claims, there is an FTC action in your future."
And that's SetonnoteS...I'm Tony Seton.
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