{"id":39442,"date":"2023-01-03T01:37:55","date_gmt":"2023-01-03T01:37:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.brandon.ddtest.info\/multisite-test\/ftc-halts-debt-relief-scheme-that-bilked-millions-from-consumers-while-leaving-many-deeper-in-debt\/"},"modified":"2023-01-03T01:37:55","modified_gmt":"2023-01-03T01:37:55","slug":"ftc-halts-debt-relief-scheme-that-bilked-millions-from-consumers-while-leaving-many-deeper-in-debt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.brandon.ddtest.info\/multisite-test\/ftc-halts-debt-relief-scheme-that-bilked-millions-from-consumers-while-leaving-many-deeper-in-debt\/","title":{"rendered":"FTC Halts Debt Relief Scheme that Bilked Millions from Consumers While Leaving Many Deeper in Debt"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> \n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p><span><span><span>The FTC has temporarily shut down a credit card debt relief scheme operated by Sean Austin, John Steven Huffman, and John Preston Thompson and their affiliated companies<i> <\/i>that allegedly took millions from people by falsely promising to eliminate or substantially reduce their credit card debt. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><span><span>\u201cThese defendants preyed on older Americans already struggling with credit card debt and caused them to fall into even worse debt, with lasting harm to their credit,\u201d said Samuel Levine, Director of the FTC\u2019s Bureau of Consumer Protection.\u00a0 \u201cWe will continue going after companies that take advantage of people in financial distress.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><span><span><span>Since 2019, Austin, Huffman, and Thompson have operated a network of companies incorporated in Tennessee, Nevada, New Mexico, and Wyoming that have worked together as a common enterprise to support the defendants\u2019 deceptive credit card debt relief scheme, the FTC alleged. Their companies have operated under multiple names such as ACRO Services, <span>American Consumer Rights Organization, Consumer Protection Resources, Reliance Solutions, Thacker &amp; Associates, and Tri Star Consumer Group.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><span><span><span><span>In a <a href=\"https:\/\/news.google.com\/system\/files\/ftc_gov\/pdf\/Complaint-Unsealed.pdf\">complaint<\/a>,<b>\u00a0<\/b>the FTC alleged that Austin, Huffman, and Thompson engaged in several deceptive and unlawful tactics, including:<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span><span><span><span><b><span>Deceptive telemarketing: <\/span><\/b><span>The operators have violated the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ftc.gov\/legal-library\/browse\/rules\/telemarketing-sales-rule\"><span>Telemarketing Sales Rule<\/span><\/a><span> by using telemarketers to call consumers and pitch their deceptive scheme. The telemarketers often falsely claimed to be affiliated with a particular credit card association, bank, or credit reporting agency and promised they could greatly reduce or eliminate consumers\u2019 credit card debt in approximately 12-18 months.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><span><span><span><span><b><span>Making phony debt relief promises: <\/span><\/b><span>In marketing their services, the scheme\u2019s operators claimed to use several bogus methods to reduce or eliminate consumers\u2019 credit card debt. For example, they falsely claimed that consumers may qualify for a federal debt relief program or that a consumer doesn\u2019t owe the debt because it hasn\u2019t been \u201cvalidated.\u201d <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><span><span><span><span><b><span>Charging deceptive upfront fees: <\/span><\/b><span>Consumers who agreed to sign up for the debt relief program were charged an upfront enrollment fee of thousands of dollars depending on a consumer\u2019s available credit, and they were falsely told it is part of the debt that will be eliminated as part of the program. Consumers were also charged monthly fees ranging from $20-$35 for \u201ccredit monitoring\u201d services.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span><span><span><span><span>Consumers who signed up for the defendants\u2019 services were told to stop making payments to their credit card companies and communicating with those companies. Consumers, however, were never informed that as a result of such actions, they could be sued for failing to pay their credit card debt, may accrue even more debt, and could damage their credit scores, which could also harm their ability to get credit in the future, the FTC alleged. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><span>A federal court granted the <a href=\"https:\/\/news.google.com\/system\/files\/ftc_gov\/pdf\/Temporary-Restraining-Order-Unsealed.pdf\">FTC\u2019s request<\/a>\u00a0to temporarily shut down the scheme operated by Austin, Huffman, and Thompson and froze their assets.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><span><span><span>The Commission voted 4-0<b> <\/b>to authorize the staff to file the complaint. The complaint was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><span><span><b>NOTE: <\/b>The Commission files a complaint when it has \u201creason to believe\u201d that the named defendants are violating or are about to violate the law and it appears to the Commission that a proceeding is in the public interest. The case will be decided by the court.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/news.google.com\/__i\/rss\/rd\/articles\/CBMikQFodHRwczovL3d3dy5mdGMuZ292L25ld3MtZXZlbnRzL25ld3MvcHJlc3MtcmVsZWFzZXMvMjAyMi8xMS9mdGMtaGFsdHMtZGVidC1yZWxpZWYtc2NoZW1lLWJpbGtlZC1taWxsaW9ucy1jb25zdW1lcnMtd2hpbGUtbGVhdmluZy1tYW55LWRlZXBlci1kZWJ00gEA?oc=5\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The FTC has temporarily shut down a credit card debt relief scheme operated by Sean Austin, John Steven Huffman, and John Preston Thompson and their affiliated companies that allegedly took millions from people by falsely promising to eliminate or substantially reduce their credit card debt. \u201cThese defendants preyed on older Americans already struggling with credit &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":39443,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[161],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.brandon.ddtest.info\/multisite-test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39442"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.brandon.ddtest.info\/multisite-test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.brandon.ddtest.info\/multisite-test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.brandon.ddtest.info\/multisite-test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.brandon.ddtest.info\/multisite-test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39442"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.brandon.ddtest.info\/multisite-test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39442\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.brandon.ddtest.info\/multisite-test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39443"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.brandon.ddtest.info\/multisite-test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39442"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.brandon.ddtest.info\/multisite-test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39442"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.brandon.ddtest.info\/multisite-test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39442"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}