The FTC said it stopped an online marketing scam that allegedly...
The FTC said it stopped an online marketing scam that allegedly took more than $450 million from consumers. The defendants, Jesse Willms and his 10 companies, allegedly lured consumers into “free” or “risk-free” offers for weight loss pills and tooth…
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whiteners, the FTC said in a press release. Customers were billed for things they didn’t want or agree to purchase and the defendants provided “false or misleading information to merchant banks in order to acquire credit and debit card processing services.” The preliminary injunction granted by the U.S. District Court in Seattle bans the defendants from selling services that feature a “negative option” in which the seller “interprets consumers’ silence or inaction as permission to charge them,” FTC said. They also are banned from selling services in which consumers “are sent regular shipments of merchandise until they cancel,” it said. Negative-option billing got a publicity boost from the Senate Commerce Committee last year in its investigation of so-called data pass marketing by Affinion, Vertrue and Webloyalty (WID May 20/10 p6).