Tag: deceptive/misleading conduct

In June 2020, the marketers of a low-level light therapy device (LLLT) called Willow Curve agreed to stop making allegedly deceptive claims that the device treats chronic, severe pain and associated inflammation, under a settlement with the FTC. 

In a complaint filed in federal court the FTC alleged that the marketers of Willow Curve promoted the device nationwide since 2014, touting it as a “smart” device that is “clinically proven,” even though they lack scientific evidence to support these claims. The order settling the complaint also requires two defendants to pay $200,000 each to the Commission. In August 2021, the FTC sent refunds totaling more than $350,000 to defrauded consumers.

The operators of a business coaching scheme will pay at least $1.2 million to settle Federal Trade Commission charges that they targeted people who were trying to start new businesses online and used deception to sell them bogus marketing products and services.

According to the FTC’s complaint, Position Gurus and Top Shelf Ecommerce, and their owners Aaron Poysky, Stacy Griego and Samuel Cohen Brown, targeted consumers who were looking for ways to make money by starting retail businesses on the Internet. The defendants found many of their targets by purchasing consumers’ contact information from other online business coaching operations that had already deceived the targets. In August 2021, the FTC sent refunds totaling more than $1.5 million to defrauded consumers.
 

Moneta Management, LLC, Moneta Management, Inc., and their CEO Michael Todd Greene settled FTC allegations that they knowingly provided false or deceptive information to credit card and ACH processors to obtain merchant processing for a student debt relief scam operated by Brandon Frere and his three companies.

Career Education Corporation (CEC) and its subsidiaries, American InterContinental University, Inc., AIU Online, LLC, Marlin Acquisition Corporation, Colorado Technical University, Inc., and Colorado Tech., Inc. (collectively, CEC), has been ordered to pay $30 million to the FTC to settle Federal Trade Commission charges that the operator used sales leads from lead generators that falsely told consumers they were affiliated with the U.S. military, and that used other unlawful tactics to generate leads. CEC’s lead generators also induced consumers to submit their information under the guise of providing job or benefits assistance. The FTC also charged that CEC’s lead generators falsely told consumers that their information would not be shared, and that both CEC and its lead generators illegally called consumers registered on the National Do Not Call (DNC) Registry.

The Federal Trade Commission is sending nearly $30 million in refunds to people tricked by agents working on behalf of Career Education Corporation (currently operating as Perdoceo Education Corporation), the operator of several post-secondary schools.