Nixon stops fraudulent charges from Florida telemarketers

Missouri Attorney General Jay Nixon obtained a court order Jan. 23 to stop a group of Miami telemarketers from putting charges for unwanted and unordered services such as Internet access, e-mail addresses, Web sites and listings on search engines on telephone bills of Missouri consumers and small businesses. The placement of unauthorized charges on telephone bills is an illegal practice known as cramming.

Greene County Circuit Judge Don E. Burrell Jr. signed a preliminary injunction barring defendants National Online Services, Liberty Online Services and Epixtar Corp. from placing charges on the phone bills of Missourians without their express verifiable authorization or otherwise misrepresenting facts to consumers.

Nixon is seeking a permanent injunction that would include restitution for Missouri victims.

"These illegal billings were particularly brazen because many of the victims specifically told the telemarketers they did not want the services being offered, and other victims were never contacted before the charges appeared on the bills," Nixon said. "The success of scams of this nature often depend on how closely the victims examine their telephone bills, but the defendants took this one step farther by lying to consumers who complained and avoiding consumers' attempts to contact them."

Nixon said his office had received 69 complaints from Missourians about the billing practices of the Florida telemarketers, but that it was almost certain there were other Missouri victims of the scam. Victims, who often owned small businesses, typically found unauthorized charges for $30.85 on behalf of National Online Services on their local telephone bills. Some of the charges appeared after the victim received a telemarketing call from the defendants soliciting various Internet-related services; others appeared without a prior telemarketing call.

Consumers who tried to contact National Online Services either have been unsuccessful, Nixon said, or have had additional misrepresentations made to them, including altered recordings of telemarketing calls or promises of credits that have never been issued on the consumers' telephone bills.

Nixon said consumers who had not yet contacted his office with complaints about National Online Services or the other defendants should call the Consumer Protection Hotline at 1-800-392-8222.