IF anyone uses them this should be nice to see.
This was taken from another board, link at the bottom.
Telcoweb Announcement! Please Read
The following information is being provided to all resellers, webmasters and account managers to serve as a documentation of the recent events with the FTC. We apologize if it seems we were not communicating as much as expected but because of the nature of the case and the specific accounts involved, we were unable to put a statement out through the newsletter or on any boards until all parties involved were notified accordingly. Please read through this message carefully to ensure that any questions you may have aren't already included in the text before you contact an account manager for additional information.
Section 1: Case History
FTC v. BTV Industries et al.
(Telcoweb is the brand name of the product/dialer program that is run by BTV Industries)
On March 27, 2002, the FTC filed a complaint alleging that BTV Industries was responsible for an $11 Million dollar scam via Spam/UCE defrauding consumers using a 1-900 number. The alleged offense outlined that BTV Industries purpotrated a scam by bulk emailing messages posing as Yahoo promising a prize of a Playstation 2 system. The Spam redirected the recipient to an imitation Yahoo webpage instructing them to reconnect to a "toll - free" number to claim the prize. Consumers who followed the instructions were connected via a premium rate number and into a members area with pornographic content ending up with a large phone charge to a 1-900 number.
*The following was taken from the FTC Site describing the exact charges filed against BTV and is available at
http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2002/04/btv.htm for full review*
The Commission charged the defendants with violating the FTC Act and the Pay-Per-Call Rule, which implements the requirements of the Telephone Disclosure and Dispute Resolution Act of 1992. The FTC's complaint alleged that the defendants' practices were deceptive and misled consumers, through their claims: 1) that consumers had won a prize; 2) that Yahoo sent the e-mail; and 3) that the connection to the Web site was toll-free. Additionally, the FTC said the defendants violated the Pay-Per-Call Rule by not disclosing the cost of connecting to the Web site and by not providing an audio introductory disclosure message when consumers connected to the Internet through the 900-number.
In its complaint, the FTC is seeking a permanent injunction and other equitable relief, including consumer redress. The Commission vote authorizing staff to file the complaint was 4-0, with Commissioner Sheila Anthony not participating. The complaint was filed under seal in U.S. District Court for the District of Nevada on March 27, 2002. The seal was lifted on April 22, 2002.
In addition to the charges brought against us, a TRO (Temporary Restraining Order) was placed and froze all incoming revenue from all US carriers and prevented BTV from receiving or making any payments. Full details are also available at the above link in .pdf format.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Section 2 Case Relevance
As most of you who have been working within the industry know, this was a ground breaking case by the FTC in an effort to start addressing Internet Scam and fraud. This case was one of many that they have used to permanently change the market, which could wipe out the US involvement for everyone in the industry, not just us.
BTV Industries/Telcoweb had a choice to make and based on the facts of the case we were confident that they didn't research the facts to their full extent and we chose to protect the integrity of the organization by going forth with all of their requests. We have always worked within the guidelines of all International, Federal, and local regulatory agencies and were able to prove it and chose to fight to have our money released to pay our accounts and protect our name. We felt that we would be able to supply more than adequate documentation to prove our lack of involvement in the scam and protect the integrity of the dialer program BTV Industries developed.
Staff members worked diligently to put together any and all proof or evidence of our zero tolerance policy, our content police system, a complete dateline of the events of the scam and our efforts to halt and terminate the offending account s . In addition the best legal representation available for this type of case was brought in for our defense. Through the combined efforts of our staff and legal team and countless hours of work and commitment, we were able to provide the FTC with all of the information needed to prove that rather than Instigating the scam we were actually the party who shut it down. This was a costly endeavour, but our confidence in a positive outcome helped the group choose to go forward with the case quickly and efficiently.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Section 3 Final Outcome
BTV Industries prevailed as promised. In addition we also proved how effective and diligent we work to protect consumers from fraud such as this and any other violations dictated by all governing bodies. We have had our dialers approved for continued operations by showing that we adhere to their guidelines. Telcoweb is now the safest dialer company in the world!
A settlement was reached and the TRO has been lifted effective Friday, June 22, 2002. All final documentation is in transit and we expect all funds to be released within the next 7 days. As soon as confirmation of the date of fund transfer is available to us a follow up message will be issued going over the date of payroll processing.
We appreciate your patience and support during this time and assure you that Telcoweb will always fight to protect the interest of our account holders.
If you have any further questions, do not reply to this message and contact the staff online or by email at the addresses listed on the Telcoweb site under the 'Contacts' tab.
Regards,
The Telcoweb staff
Last edited by Telcoweb on 06-22-2002 at 03:49 PM
http://bbs.adultwebmasterinfo.com/sh...threadid=33400