Cross-Border Credit Card Fraud

We hope that this is not a "trend" but felt it was worthwhile to report. According to a news release from the American Collectors Association, the Federal Trade Commission has charged a company based in Toronto, Canada with promising U.S. consumers that it could obtain a major bank credit card for them, regardless of their credit histories. The FTC charged that the defendants, who operated under several different names, had violated an FTC rule by "falsely representing that they would provide consumers with a VISA or MasterCard credit card that had a interest rate of 3.9 percent or 6 percent, a credit line of $2,500 to $5,000 and no annual fee—all for an upfront processing fee from $175 to $199 for the credit cards by authorizing debits from their bank account." However, according to the FTC, instead of credit cards, respondents received "packages containing information about obtaining credit, repairing credit and avoiding credit card fraud and financial scams." The defendants never provided the promised credit cards and were not authorized by VISA or MasterCard to do so. The court has issued an injunction against the firm from doing further business and frozen its assets.