Home Consumer Replacement Medicare Cards – FTC cracks down on latest “Bait & Switch”...

Replacement Medicare Cards – FTC cracks down on latest “Bait & Switch” scam

By Al Sunshine, Consumer Investigator, Special to SouthFloridaReporter.com, July 28, 2015 –

It’s the latest “Bait & Switch”

Offer Senior Citizens help with “Replacement” Medicare Cards offering additional benefits, ask for their Bank Account Information, and make unauthorized withdrawals from the bank accounts.

That’s what the Federal Trade Commission charged a Tampa Business group with doing, and as part of a settlement, they’ve been banned by the FTC from ever selling healthcare products again.

Federal Investigators say the settlements resolves 2014 charges against Benjamin Todd Workman and Glenn Erikson and their companies.

How’d the scam work?

According to the FTC: 

“Their telemarketers falsely told consumers they needed their bank account numbers to verify their identities before sending a new Medicare card, promising they would not take money from the accounts.

In fact, they took several hundred dollars from each consumer’s account and provided nothing in return. In some cases, their telemarketers falsely promised to provide consumers with identity theft protection services.”

The defendants allegedly misrepresented that they were working on behalf of Medicare, and said they needed to verify consumers’ identities using personal information that included their bank account numbers. The defendants allegedly assured consumers that the information would not be used to debit their bank accounts, and that there was no charge for the new Medicare card or information about Medicare benefits.

However, within a few weeks, consumers learned their bank accounts had been debited either $399 or $448 via remotely created checks (RCCs), the complaint alleges. Despite these charges, consumers did not receive any kind of product or service from the defendants. In some instances, the defendants debited the accounts of consumers they had not even contacted.

Under the settlement orders, the defendants also are banned from selling identity theft protection-related products and creating or depositing remotely created checks or remotely created payment orders, which are used to make bank account debits. They also are prohibited from billing or charging consumers without their consent, misrepresenting material facts about any product or service, violating the Telemarketing Sales Rule, and selling or otherwise benefiting from customers’ personal information.

Per the FTC:

“The orders impose a judgment of more than $1.4 million, which will be suspended upon payment of $35,000 by Workman and the surrender of certain bank accounts. 

In each case, the full judgment will become due immediately if either defendant is found to have misrepresented his financial condition. The defendants are Workman, Sun Bright Ventures LLC and Citadel ID Pro LLC, and Erickson and Trident Consulting Partners LLC.

Learn about this and other “Automatic Debit Scams” and how to protect yourself: HERE

 

[vc_message message_box_style=”outline” style=”rounded” message_box_color=”turquoise” icon_type=”fontawesome” icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-info-circle” icon_openiconic=”vc-oi vc-oi-dial” icon_typicons=”typcn typcn-adjust-brightness” icon_entypo=”entypo-icon entypo-icon-note” icon_linecons=”vc_li vc_li-heart” icon_pixelicons=”vc_pixel_icon vc_pixel_icon-alert”]Read the complete FTC filing order HERE[/vc_message]
Al Sunshine is a South Florida-based Broadcast and Digital Journalist whose career has spanned more than 40 years at the local and national levels. His award-winning investigations have triggered more than a dozen state and local consumer protection laws and his work’s been cited in Congressional Testimony before the U-S House of Representatives. He is best known for his “Shame On You” features for CBS Miami which sought to expose businesses, agencies and individuals defrauding or deceiving consumers, as well as endangering the safety and welfare of the general public. In 2013 Al retired from CBS Miami to set up his own Digital News Business, “Sunshine News, LLC” and Al continues to blog for the Radio, Television, Digital News Association, sponsors of the prestigious Edward R. Murrow Awards”. An avid environmentalist, Al is one of the founding members of the “Miami Pine Rocklands Coalition”. The Florida Non-Profit is fighting to save and restore the last 2% of Pine Rocklands found only in South Florida and nowhere else in the continental United States. Al was recently elected its President.