Took money from my mother's checking account

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• 0

  tj

  30 Jan 2012

  They are a fake "medical discount" scam operating from the Montreal Canada area, and are reported to prey on older people, either trying to slip through unauthorized charges, or deceptively obtaining "authorization" for charges through fraudulent telemarketing calls.  Some complaints report they call the elderly, claiming to be "their pharmacy", or even "Medicare", and threatening to cut off their Medicare benefits if victims don't "update" their account information.
  
  You may want to also run this by a consumer attorney, as there are numerous complaints of elder fraud against this company.  There may be a potential class action case against not only the Canadian scammers, but more directly, their payment processor.  You might try www.naca.net to find a consumer attorney in your state.
  
  File fraud complaints with FTC, bank theft complaints with OCC (www.occ.gov and the Secret Service.
  
  Also file a fraud complaint with BBB, so others can find information about this scam.
  
  Here is their BBB report.  Very thin, but BBB NY has opened files on various past names used by similar Canadian scams, and these may just be the same ones under a new name.  Champlain NY is a populaor site for Canadian scam mail drops in the U.S., since it is right across the border.
  
  http://www.bbb.org/buffalo/business-reviews/n ... n-ny-235967188/
  
  InterBen fraud complaints are often associated with "Discount Medical Services", which also has a Champlain NY mail drop.  Some consumer reports suggest "InterBen" may be a payment processor cooperating with a fraudulent telemarketer.
  
  http://www.bbb.org/buffalo/business-reviews/t ... n-ny-165454830/
  
  BBB reports 17 complaints consistent with fraudulent telemarketing, reporting that they ignored 16 complaints forwarded by BBB.  BBB gives them an "F".
  
  You MUST notify your bank this is fraudulent, and close the account they have information on, as they will periodically just help themselves to your mom's money.  You should also change your mom's phone number, and provide no forwarding number, as these people prey on the elderly.

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• 0

  tj

  23 May 2013

  http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2013/05/tsr.shtm
  "For Release: 05/21/2013
  
  FTC Seeks Public Comment on Proposal to Ban Payment Methods Favored in Fraudulent Telemarketing Transactions
  
  In an ongoing effort to protect consumers from deceptive telemarketing, the Federal Trade Commission seeks public comment on proposed amendments to strengthen the Telemarketing Sales Rule’s protections against bogus charges and services.    
  
  The Commission’s Notice of Proposed Rulemaking announced today would curtail the use of four payment methods favored by con artists and scammers.  The proposed changes would:
  
  Stop telemarketers from dipping directly into consumer bank accounts by using unsigned checks and “payment orders” that have been “remotely created.”  These instruments can make it easy for unscrupulous telemarketers to debit bank accounts without permission, according to the FTC.  
  
  Bar telemarketers from getting paid with traditional “cash-to-cash” money transfers, as well as “cash reload” mechanisms, that scammers rely on to get money quickly and anonymously from consumer victims.  
  
  The FTC has found that unscrupulous telemarketers rely on these payment methods because they are largely unmonitored and provide consumers with fewer protections against fraud.  The FTC’s proposed changes to the TSR would make it a violation for telemarketers and sellers to accept any of these payment methods in any telemarketing transaction.
  
  The proposed changes also would expand the TSR’s ban on telemarketing “recovery services” in exchange for an advance fee.  In the Commission’s experience, telemarketers who call consumers offering to help recover losses they suffered through an earlier fraud are often engaged in deceptive practices.  Currently limited to offers to recoup losses suffered in a prior telemarketing transaction, the existing ban would be expanded to include offers to recoup losses suffered in any prior transaction.

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