Horne
PHOENIX (Legal Newsline) - Arizona Attorney General Tom Horne announced a lawsuit against 26 defendants on Thursday who were allegedly part of a work-from-home scam.
According to Horne's complaint, the defendants sold websites that claimed consumers could sell credit card merchant services, debt consolidation services and/or mortgage refinancing services with the promise of substantial commissions from the sales generates by the sites. High-pressure sales tactics were then allegedly used on consumers to sell marketing packages to website owners.
"My office is committed to shutting down work from home scams that take advantage of vulnerable consumers, especially seniors," Horne said. "Preventing this type of consumer fraud and educating consumers about possible scams is one of my top priorities."
A temporary restraining order prohibiting the defendants from telemarketing and selling business opportunities was obtained by Horne's office, and the defendants are also prevented from accessing bank accounts that potentially contain money obtained through fraud.
Horne's lawsuit, in addition to civil penalties and restitution for victims, seeks a permanent injunction to prevent the defendants from violating the Consumer Fraud Act, the Telephone Solicitation Act and the Arizona Organized Crime, Fraud and Terrorism Act in the future.
The defendants would also be barred from being involved in a business entity engaged in the advertisement and/or sale of any business opportunity in Arizona, making any outbound telemarketing calls to any consumer residing in Arizona, or providing customers' names, addresses, telephone numbers, email addresses, fax numbers and/or credit card or bank account numbers to any other business.
The complaint names Maurice J. Chelliah, Kyle A. Evans, Vanessa Fitzgerald, Chalonne M. Foerster, Colleen G. Foerster, Robert John Miller, Melissa Sue (Anderson) Odle, Brian Scott Odle, Patrick V. Passarelli, Blain E. Scribner, Teresa Jean Scribner, Scott D. Walters, BES Enterprises LLC, ChoiceAdz LLC, CGF Enerprises LLC, F Marketing Limited LLC, Fast Website Marketing LLC, MS Enterprises LLC, Sagamore Marketing Solutions LLC, Scribner Marketing and Suki Enterprises.
Other business names used when calling consumers include The Economic Freedom Corporation, True Success Solutions, Franklin Financial Solutions, My Choice Business Services, Innovative Marketing Strategies, DBB Marketing, CGF Enterprises and East Street Merchants.