On September 28, 2017, the United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania (USAO) announced it entered a $3.6 million settlement agreement with a Utah Bank and its affiliated payment processor to settle allegations that the bank and its processor committed fraud by illegally debiting money for specific telemarketing and Internet marketing merchants (Merchants). The USAO’s settlement is the…
On June 27, 2017, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) announced that it filed two complaints and proposed final judgments against four California-based credit repair companies for misleading consumers and charging illegal fees. The CFPB alleged that the companies charged illegal advance fees for credit repair services and misrepresented their ability to repair…
On June 5, 2017, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced that a federal district court had entered its eighth order against the remaining defendants in an illegal robocall ring in which defendants promised to help consumers lower their credit card interest rates. The FTC, in conjunction with the Florida Office of the Attorney…
On March 9, 2017, the North Carolina Attorney General (“AG”) announced that it had settled a lawsuit filed in the Wake County, North Carolina Superior Court against three debt relief companies and two individuals. As a result of the settlement, the court entered an order banning the companies and individuals from advertising or providing debt relief…
On March 7, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced that the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas entered a stipulated order prohibiting a national debt relief provider from making misleading claims about its debt relief services. The court also entered a $9 million judgment against the defendants, with all but…
On February 1, 2017, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) announced a settlement with a credit card service provider and a credit card provider over a disruption of service for prepaid credit card consumers. According to the CFPB, the credit card provider marketed its prepaid credit card to consumers nationally as a way to get…
On November 30, 2016, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the Florida Attorney General (AG) announced several settlements totaling approximately $27 million in an alleged fraudulent credit card debt reduction scheme. In a set of stipulated orders, all but one defendant agreed to monetary judgments, as well as bans on future telemarketing, selling debt relief services, and credit…
On November 10, 2016, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced that it had filed a lawsuit in the Northern District of Georgia against a prepaid credit card provider. The FTC’s complaint alleges violations of Section 5 of the FTC Act, which prohibits “unfair or deceptive acts or practices in or…
For the second quarter of 2016, Consumer Enforcement Watch tracked 46 enforcement actions taken against consumer finance providers. This represents a slight decrease from the 50 enforcement actions that were tracked last quarter, and a decrease from the 56 actions that we tracked in the second quarter of 2015. Approximately two-thirds of…
On September 8, 2016, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) announced that, pursuant to a Consent Order, a national bank agreed to make full restitution to consumers and pay the CFPB a $100 million fine because many of its employees allegedly engaged in an illegal practice of opening unauthorized deposit and credit…