Judge Orders Halt to Alleged Toner Sales Phone Scam

A federal district court has ordered a temporary halt to an allegedly deceptive “toner phoner” scheme run by a group of companies and individuals in Orange County, the Federal Trade Commission said.

The temporary order by a U.S. District Court judge in Santa Ana also freezes the assets of seven companies and eight individuals until a further hearing Monday.

The order came in an FTC complaint charging that the interrelated companies involved in telemarketing or selling photocopier toner misrepresented themselves to obtain orders from businesses nationwide.

The seven companies, operating offices mainly in Irvine and Newport Beach, were doing business as District Supply Center, Central Supply Center and National Supply Center. In some cases, the FTC said, these centers shipped and billed businesses for products not ordered and tacked on big freight and handling charges.

The FTC did not say how much these centers obtained by the alleged fraud, but the agency’s complaint said the defendants have been operating since at least January 1994.

The seven companies named in the complaint are MTK Marketing Inc., Nationwide Transport Inc., Copy Resource Center Inc., Intel Marketing of California Inc., Telco Marketing Inc., Paragon Shipping Inc. and Acacia Properties Inc.

The companies could not be reached for comment.