WASHINGTON (Legal Newsline) — The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced April 16 that the ringleader for a negative-option sales scam using teeth whiteners has been banned from negative-option sales after a settlement.
The operators of the alleged scam are Blair McNea, Jennifer Johnson, Danielle Foss and 59 corporate defendants. According to the FTC, these defendants duped people into providing billing information by using deceptive claims, hidden disclosures and confusing terms. Once the defendants had secured billing information, they would purportedly charge consumers for two ongoing subscriptions for nearly identical products. Consumers would then be overcharged until they canceled the unauthorized subscriptions.
The defendants are now banned from negative-option sales and a $92,011,601 judgment has been suspended. Instead, the defendants must hand over assets such as money, vehicles and proceeds from the sale of two homes.
The FTC voted 2-0 to approve the proposed stipulated final orders against McNea and the corporate defendants, Johnson and Foss. The orders were entered April 10 into the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Nevada.