Countywide : Suit Contends Firm Issuing Phony Billing

Prosecutors have filed a consumer protection lawsuit seeking to prevent three Orange County companies from allegedly billing people and businesses for classified advertisements that they never ordered.

The lawsuit is against Erica Kortje, who owns and operates companies known as Advertising Services, Employment Classifieds and Employment Classifieds USA.

The Orange County district attorney’s office alleges that the three companies falsely say they have thousands of subscribers. Authorities say the three companies operate out of at least two private rented mailboxes in Santa Ana and another in Hacienda Heights.

The companies, which claim to publish the Employment Classifieds and News Magazine, obtain classified ads from national and local newspapers, according to the lawsuit.

The companies supposedly publish the advertisements in their own publications, and then mail a bill for payment to the victim, the lawsuit alleges.

Senior Deputy Dist. Atty. Jean L. Shade said the office’s consumer protection unit has received complaints about the scheme “from victim businesses all over the United States.”

The businesses’ operator “readily shut down the operation as it exists under one name and resurrects it under a new name. The resurrections continue over and over so that consumers and law enforcement are unable to prosecute or even identify the defendants,” the lawsuit states.

The district attorney’s office is seeking penalties of $10,000 for each alleged violation.