Alcoholism treatment firm to pay more than $700,000 in penalties
Here is a roundup of alleged cons, frauds and schemes to watch out for.
Alcoholism treatment — A federal judge has ordered the marketers of a phony alcoholism cure to pay more than $700,000 in penalties. The Federal Trade Commission and the Florida attorney general’s office had accused Alcoholism Cure Corp., also known as ACF, of marketing ineffective supplements to treat alcoholism and threatening to expose customers’ alcoholism if they asked for a refund. The fine will be used to repay victims, the FTC said.
“Sextortion” — Federal prosecutors have filed criminal charges against a Maine resident for allegedly participating in a cyber crime known as “sextortion” for stealing explicit photographs of a woman from her computer and threatening to post them on the Internet. John Bryan Villegas, 21, of Kittery, Maine, is charged with one count of computer intrusion and one count of extortion. The complaint alleges that Villegas threatened to post the stolen photographs on the Internet unless his victim gave him additional explicit photographs and videos.
Fake bills — The Central California chapter of the Better Business Bureau is warning consumers to not respond to bogus invoices for payment that have been sent to homes throughout the United States. The notices are sent by several companies calling themselves U.S. Telecom, UST Dry Utilities, UST Inc. and UST Development Inc., and appear to be legitimate bills that need to be paid, the BBB said. “It’s targeted to people who are receiving a lot of invoices anyway. They’re sending it to people hoping that you’ll just be paying your bills and push it through,” said Blair Looney, chief executive of the chapter. Anyone who receives a bill from those companies should notify the BBB or law enforcement, Looney said.
