WASHINGTON (Legal Newsline) — The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced Feb. 15 that it is mailing a total of more than $2.9 million to 72,836 victims of an alleged payday loan scheme conducted by CWB Services LLC.
The FTC charged CWB Services with forcing consumers into payday loans that were never agreed to or were deceptive. The defendant purportedly used online lead generators and data brokers to obtain consumer information, which it then used to create fake payday loan agreements.
According to the FTC, CWB Services would then deposit money into consumer accounts without permission and later withdraw biweekly “finance” charges, despite never applying payments to the unauthorized loans.
The 72,836 victims in the case will receive an average of $40.61. The FTC noted that these checks must be cashed or deposited with 60 days but that no fee will be required to cash or refund them. The FTC’s refund administrator in the case is Epiq Systems.
The FTC stated in a news release that this action was part of $6.4 billion in total refunds the agency obtained for consumers between July 2016 and June 2017.