Florida News Straight From the Source
The Florida Lottery is warning citizens of a Lottery scam targeting the elderly making its rounds in south Florida in which scammers are asking residents for help claiming a ‘winning’ ticket. [Read more…] about Florida Lottery warns of scam targeting the elderly in South Florida
The Florida Lottery is warning citizens of a lottery scam involving MEGA MILLIONS® in which scammers are sending emails to the public indicating they may have won $1 million, in an effort to obtain personal and financial information. Do not respond to these emails; if you have not purchased a MEGA MILLIONS ticket, you cannot win a prize. [Read more…] about Florida Lottery warns citizens of MEGA MILLIONS® scam
The Florida Lottery is warning citizens of a lottery scam making its rounds in Hillsborough County using a variety of fraudulent techniques targeting seniors in the Hispanic community. Scammers are attempting to convince victims they are in possession of winning lottery tickets, but need cash to claim the winnings because they are in the country illegally. Scammers have also attempted to validate the crime by claiming to work for the Florida Lottery.
[Read more…] about Florida Lottery warns of scam in Hillsborough County
The Florida Lottery is warning citizens of a lottery scam involving MEGA MILLIONS®in which scammers are sending emails to the public indicating they may have won $1 million, in an effort to obtain personal and financial information. Do not respond to these emails; if you have not purchased a MEGA MILLIONS ticket, you cannot win a prize.
The email features the MEGA MILLIONS logo as part of the letterhead, and states that the recipient was among a group of randomly selected people to participate in an ongoing MEGA MILLIONS drawing. Individuals are asked to provide general information about themselves in order to participate. The email goes on to warn the recipient not to share this information with other people in order to avoid impersonation and a double claim.
Florida Lottery players will never be required to transfer funds to secure their winnings for MEGA MILLIONS or any other Florida Lottery game. For more information and to find other tips to protect yourself, please visit www.flalottery.com. To report a lottery scam, consumers should contact the Florida Lottery’s Division of Security at (850) 487-7730.
Attorney General Pam Bondi and the Federal Trade Commission have jointly obtained a court order halting a massive phony debt relief operation that bilked millions of dollars from financially strapped consumers, including the elderly and disabled. According to the complaint filed by Attorney General Bondi’s Office and the FTC, Jeremy Lee Marcus, Craig Davis Smith and Yisbet Segrea, through 11 companies, convinced consumers to pay hundreds or thousands of dollars a month by falsely promising to pay, settle or obtain dismissals of consumers’ debts and improve consumers’ credit. After paying for the defendants’ services, consumers allegedly found debts unpaid, accounts in default and credit scores severely damaged. The scam even forced some victims into bankruptcy and some consumers were sued by their creditors.
“Despite alleged promises, the victims of this scam ended up with little or nothing to show for their payments and were made worse off financially,” said Attorney General Bondi. “I will continue to work with our federal partners to stop scammers targeting and exploiting consumers in search of financial help.”
The joint complaint alleges that the defendants made promises of guaranteed debt consolidation loans with attractive interest rates and significantly lower monthly payments. To appear more credible and legitimate, the defendants allegedly falsely claimed non-profit status. After consumers agreed to the purported loan, the defendants began debiting consumers bank accounts. According to the complaint, the defendants also called consumers already enrolled with other debt relief providers and falsely claimed to be taking control of the servicing of those accounts and providing the same or similar services.
Marcus, Smith, Segrea and their companies are all alleged in the complaint to have violated the Florida Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act, the FTC Act and the FTC’s Telemarketing Sales Rule.
The court’s preliminary injunction order prohibits the defendants from misrepresenting or assisting others in misrepresenting that the defendants will:
The defendants are also prohibited from violating, or assisting others in violating, any provision of the Telemarketing Sales Rule.
To view the preliminary injunction order, click here.
To view the complaint filed, click here.
Attorney General Bondi would like to express her thanks to the Federal Trade Commission for their continuing partnership in this case, as well as in other consumer protection efforts. Attorney General Bondi would also like to acknowledge the assistance of the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, the Broward County Sheriff’s Office and the Better Business Bureau of Southeast Florida.
The corporate defendants are Financial Freedom National, Inc., f/k/a Institute for Financial Freedom, Inc. and Marine Career Institute Sea Frontiers, Inc., also d/b/a 321 Loans, Instahelp America, Inc., Helping America Group, United Financial Support, Breeze Financial Solutions, 321Financial Education, Credit Health Plan, Credit Specialists of America, American Advocacy Alliance and Associated Administrative Services; 321Loans, Inc., f/k/a 321 Loans, Inc., also d/b/a 321Financial, Inc.; Instahelp America, Inc, f/k/a Helping America Team, Inc., also d/b/a Helping America Group; Helping America Group, LLC, f/k/a Helping America Group, Inc.; Breeze Financial Solutions, Inc., also d/b/a Credit Health Plan and Credit Maximizing Program; US Legal Club, LLC; Active Debt Solutions, LLC, f/k/a Active Debt Solutions, Inc., also d/b/a Guardian Legal Center; Guardian LG, LLC, also d/b/a Guardian Legal Group; American Credit Security, LLC, f/k/a American Credit Shield, LLC; Paralegal Support Group LLC, f/k/a Paralegal Staff Support LLC; and Associated Administrative Services, LLC, also d/b/a Jobfax.
The relief defendants who allegedly profited from the scheme are JLMJP Pompano, LLC, 1609 Belmont Place LLC, 16 S H Street Lake Worth, LLC, 17866 Lake Azure Way Boca, LLC, 114 Southwest 2nd Street DBF, LLC, 110 Glouchester St., LLC, 72 SE 6th Ave., LLC, Fast Pace 69 LLC, Strategic Acquisitions Two, LLC, Halfpay International, LLC, Halfpay NV LLC, and Nantucket Cove of Illinois, LLC.
Attorney General Pam Bondi today announced federal court approval of proposed consent judgments against several Florida-based debt relief service providers. The consent judgments, filed jointly in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida by the Attorney General’s Office and the Federal Trade Commission, resolve allegations that the defendant debt relief companies targeted individuals deeply in debt with promises of lower credit card payments and substantial savings and collected upfront fees for the promised services, but never delivered on those services or provided refunds. As a result, consumers fell even deeper into debt.
“Debt relief scams target people trying to pay their bills and get out of debt and these types of scams impede their efforts—leaving victims, trying to do the right thing, owing more than when they asked for help,” said Attorney General Bondi. “We will continue to do everything in our power to identify and eliminate these scams to better protect Floridians.”
As part of the scam, the defendant debt relief service providers allegedly worked with payment processors to create more than two dozen shell merchants to process credit card payments for the scam operation. The defendants allegedly created these fake businesses to act as fronts and launder the illegal transactions, ultimately taking more than $12 million from consumers.
The defendant debt relief service providers subject to the consent judgments include Steven D. Short and his wife, Karissa L. Dyar, E.M. Systems & Services LLC, Administrative Management & Design LLC, Empirical Data Group Technologies, LLC, Epiphany Management Systems, LLC and KLS Industries, LLC, doing business as Satisfied Service Solutions, LLC. To view the order granting approval of the consent judgments with the debt relief service providers, click here.
The payment processors included in the court’s orders are CardReady LLC and its executives, Brandon A. Becker, James F. Berland and Andrew S. Padnick. To view the orders approving the consent judgment with CardReady and it executives, click here and here.
Additionally, a telemarketing company, One Easy Solution LLC and its principals, Christopher Miles, Jason Gagnon, Matthew Thomas and Kenneth Sallies are permanently banned from all telemarketing activities. To view the orders approving the consent judgment with One Easy and its principals, click here, font-family: Arial; font-size: medium;”> here, font-family: Arial; font-size: medium;”> here and here.
The court orders require a payment of more than $4 million and the relinquishment of property as follows:
Under the federal consent orders, the debt relief service providers are permanently banned from conducting outbound telemarketing and selling or advertising any debt relief product or service. Additionally, the payment processors are permanently banned from the payment processing industry.
