And You Thought You Had Credit Card Trouble

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission announced Thursday that it has won a $37.5 million judgment against two California residents who purchased a database list of credit card numbers and used it to fraudulently bill thousands of consumers for alleged visits to adult-oriented Web sites.

According to the FTC, Kenneth and Teresa Taves and Dennis Rappaport ostensibly bought a list of more than 3 million active Visa and MasterCard numbers from Charter Pacific Bank in Agoura Hills, Calif., to target marketing efforts at potential customers. The FTC alleged that, instead, the defendants simply billed thousands of cardholders for Web site visits and other services that weren't requested.

U.S. District Judge Audrey Collins said that "a shocking 40 percent to 50 percent of the calls received by the defendants were from people who said they did not have a computer and had not given their card numbers to anyone," in an excerpt from the judgment quoted by the FTC.

The Taveses and Rappaport operated various businesses that assessed the bogus charges under descriptions such as "N-Bill" and "Web-tel." The FTC says. The entire operation was shut down and placed in receivership in January 1999.

An FTC spokeswoman says the judgment is against Kenneth and Teresa Taves alone because Rappaport fled to Jamaica soon after being served with a complaint. Neither the Taveses' attorneys or Charter Pacific Bank have returned telephone calls requesting comment.

• Bookmark this page
• Share this article
  •  
  • facebook
  • slashdot
  • digg
  • Reddit
  • stumbleupon
  • linkedin
  • twitter
• Got more on this story? Email Computerworld
• Follow Computerworld on twitter

• Share
  Share this article

  •  google+
  • facebookfacebook
  • slashdotslashdot
  • diggdigg
  • RedditReddit
  • stumbleuponstumbleupon
  • linkedinlinkedin
  • twittertwitter
• print
• email
• Bookmark