WASHINGTON (Legal Newsline) — The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced a ban Nov. 30 against a group of defendants that allegedly bilked more than $12 million from consumers by falsely promising to reduce credit card interest rates.
The group of defendants will be banned from telemarketing and from selling debt relief services. Additionally, the payment processors who allegedly enabled them will be banned from the payment processing industry.
The defendants in the case are Steven D. Short and his wife Karissa L. Dyar, E.M. Systems & Services LLC, Administrative Management & Design LLC, Empirical Data Group Technologies LLC, Epiphany Management Systems LLC, and KLS Industries LLC, doing business as Satisfied Service Solutions LLC.
“Working with the Florida Attorney General’s Office, the Federal Trade Commission has stopped yet another telemarketing scam that offered bogus solutions to relieve credit card debt,” said Jessica Rich, director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection. “People should just hang up the phone when they get this kind of offer.”
The FTC voted 3-0 to approve the proposed stipulated final orders. Three separate settlements with different defendants total roughly $27 million, most of which will be suspended upon the surrender of certain assets.