Good news for consumers, as software company, IWorks has agreed to a huge settlement in a massive consumer fraud case brought by the FTC. The ringleaders have agreed to pay back $280 million scammed out of customers who had signed up for “free” or “risk- free” trials.
“Nothing is ever free, though to you it be.
Somewhere, somehow, someone paid.” – Roger Hancock
Two of the schemes leaders have also been sentenced to prison.
Here’s how the FTC case went down:
“The ringleader and two other defendants in the massive IWorks online billing scheme have agreed to settle Federal Trade Commission charges that they took more than $280 million from consumers via deceptive “trial” memberships for bogus government-grant and money-making products.
In addition, the wife and parents of IWorks’ owner and CEO Jeremy Johnson have agreed to settle FTC charges that they received assets and funds as gifts from Johnson that came from the unlawful scheme.
In another matter involving the IWorks scheme, a federal jury in Utah convicted Jeremy Johnson and Ryan Riddle of making false statements to a bank on multiple IWorks merchant account applications. After Johnson and Riddle agreed to settle with the FTC, Johnson was sentenced to 11 years and three months in prison, and Riddle to five years and three months.”
Read the FTC agreement
Look before you leap. The FTC has a list of things to do before you sign-up for that “free” or “free trial” offer. You can find those HERE
By Al Sunshine, SouthFloridaReporter.com, Consumer Investigator, Aug. 30, 2016
