Integretel to Return Porn Scheme Money
 

Integretel to Return Porn Scheme Money, FTC Says
source: LATimes


Bill collecting company Integretel Inc. agreed to give up $1.6 million it charged consumers for Internet-based adult entertainment services they never purchased, the Federal Trade Commission said Tuesday.

The FTC said San Jose-based Integretel and its EBillit Inc. unit were involved in an illegal scheme in which customers were billed for adult "videotext" services through the international telephone billing system. Thousands of consumers were billed an average of $127 each.

Integretel spokesman Ken Dawson said the companies billed customers at the request of Verity International Ltd.

"This is consumer money that happened to be sitting in our bank account, so we're turning it over to the FTC," he said.

A federal court in New York approved the pact between the FTC and Integretel. The FTC said it will hold the $1.6 million until its civil claims against Verity and its owners are resolved.

The charges appeared on phone bills as an international call to Madagascar, the trade commission said. The civil charges were filed against Verity and its principals in October 2000, the FTC said.

The settlement demonstrates that if billing companies "support fraudulent activities, they will be held responsible for their actions," said J. Howard Beales, director of the trade commission's Bureau of Consumer Protection.

i don't get this shit. there are guys in jail for 10 years for selling weed to people who want to buy it and then you have these thieves who steal millions of dollars and all that happens is that the FTC tells them to give up a part of the take. What kind of justice is that? Crime pays.............white collar crime pays i should say. Steal 10 million, pay the 5 million dollar fine, and walk away with the other 5. :mad:

just isn't fair. no difference between what these people did and robbing them one by one on the street.

Huge difference in what happened here vs. robery. More than most will ever know.

Don't really know to much about Integretel....be curious to know more about them.

Companies cant go to jail

*bowl*

Its just the cost of business