Marketing Firm Sued Over Claims

The state attorney general’s office filed suit Tuesday against a Los Angeles-area marketing firm that allegedly coaxed customers into accepting magazine subscriptions for a “very small” delivery cost and then deducted up to $600 from their checking accounts to pay the bill.

In most cases, telephone patrons never signed an authorization for payment through their bank account or credit cards, and most thought they were receiving subscriptions at a nominal cost in exchange for responding to the telephone surveyor’s questions, said senior Assistant Atty. Gen. Herschel T. Elkins.

The Los Angeles Superior Court suit, which names Western Marketing and at least one of its agents, Ziv Bender, seeks a court order prohibiting further misleading claims and a minimum of $50,000 in civil penalties. State investigators believe Bender, who operates a Western Marketing outlet in the San Fernando Valley, is one of dozens of contractors working through Western Marketing’s parent firm in Lawndale, which was not named in the suit.

Ross Daly, a spokesman for the Lawndale firm, said his company simply acts as a clearinghouse for contractors like Bender and has no control over contractors’ sales techniques.