You Owe Me Money
What if a company called you, demanding you pay for a product they said you ordered? What if they threatened you if you didn’t pay? And what if you never actually ordered that product, never even saw it, and never promised to pay for anything?
A recently-filed FTC case claims that Instant Response Systems, a Brooklyn-based company, did all that and more.
The company used telemarketers to sell medical response systems – basically, a pendant marketed as a way for someone to get help in case of an emergency. The lawsuit says Instant Response Systems targeted older consumers across the United States. That’s just target marketing, right?
Except there’s no “just” about it. According to the lawsuit, the telemarketers would say they were calling in response to the consumer’s request – or a request by the consumer’s family – when that wasn’t true. The FTC says that sometimes, telemarketers would say the person had placed the order and now payment was due. Sometimes, the telemarketer would threaten the consumer with legal action if they didn’t pay, often hundreds of dollars.
What if that happened to you? If it happened to me, I’d probably get in touch with the company to dispute the charges. Seems reasonable, right? According to the FTC’s complaint, though, consumers who contacted Instant Response Systems either couldn’t reach anyone, or were faced with threats, verbal abuse, more demands to pay, and sometimes even threats of a lawsuit.
At the FTC’s request, a US District Court judge temporarily shut down Instant Response Systems. Stay tuned to see what happens next.
In the meantime, how about calling an older loved one, telling them a little about the case, and asking them to tell you if they ever see anything like this?
Comments
Does your sight officer a Federal Trade Commission fraud affidavit
THANK YOU FOR THE UPDATE
How did the person pay?
Thank you FTC! Protecting American consumers and families. This reminds me of some debt collectors and magazine salespeople that were a bunch of scam artists and liars that threw the same bunch of verbal abuse and threats at me when I challenged them. Good thing I reported some of them to the FTC. They stopped calling.
Thanks for the heads up on this matter, one never really knows, except for you helping everyone who are new.
Thank you for these articles! I am the editor of a neighborhood newsletter. Many of our residents are elderly or have older parents. I will be reprinting this and sending it on to others!
I have been getting calls offering free emergency response systems. I have declined, asked not to be called again and received another call 10 minutes later, four in one day. I assume this is a scam?
Sounds like the same company that has been calling me everyday for over a week, sometimes twice a day - the number is 443-741-3981. They don't care about the do not call list.
I had a debt collector call me for the pro-rated tent on his apartment lease off campus 2 months after it was due. I tried to explain to her the numbers did not add up and to present me an itemized bill. She screamed at me saying she sent the bill to my son st the address where she knee he no longer lived and told me I was refusing to pay. She hung up the phone and immediately called my 18 y/o son during exams told him I refused to pay and that she would ruin his credit and prevent him from getting any financial aid. I then did an exhaustive search to locate this agency as I never received any written notification or other identifying information.i then wrote a 30 day dispute letter suggesting legal contact me since they're had been violations of the FDCPA. Needless to say, I was never taken seriously and I am an attorney. God help your average person.
Lucky you. I have a PhD and in a former life did medical research and document analysis. I am not a lawyer but well trained at finding and organizing information. I have a dentist after me to pay a bill that was sent to collections for a bridge and I have my teeth! Its been going on for years and as I work to prove my case the amount is withdrawn,changes randomly and is the resubmitted as a new amount. Finally I am being sued for still ANOTHER amount (dental services and late fees prior to legal fees) that I have never even been sent to collection prior t me being sued. So now I guess I get to have that as well on my prior to this clean credit report. I have found out the hard way, anyone can say they owe you anything and get away with messing up your credit. Really it has been shocking. Who thought going to get my teeth checked would cause me so much grief?
Learn how to spell and conjugate a sentence. God help your average attorney.
Learn some common decency for the average person including the average attorney. You are forgiven for your outburst just the same. Typos are common to all of us especially when we are emotionally charged. Why are you making a statement like this in response to an FTC complaint anyway, think about it?
Just as significant a problem is when companies place orders online from competing firms' websites, only to return them demanding a full refund including shipping, and proceed to write defamatory reviews about said company across the web, filing false BBB complaints, Yelp reviews (from our experience, about 2/3 of the negative reviews on Yelp are written by competitors of the entity being reviewed), etc. Amazon is particularly notorious for failing to police its marketplace for sabotage.
Consumers need be protected from scams, but so do the honest retailers who are routinely victimized by scams that are every bit as nefarious as those targeting consumers.
defrauded by telephone company
We are being billed for a magazine account with Buckmasters, that we never ordered ($130.)
After we returned bill with cancel Never ordered all over it we still receive bills, they are nasty on phone, they hang up on you, threaten with collections and finally being contacted by a company Chase Recievables many times by phone and now in the mail to pay this so called debt we are at wits end. I warned them of impending actions against the caller and the Collection agency and received a call back saying sorry wrong account. But in the mail the very next day I receive another Collection letter saying I have a verbal aggrement to pay this debt. Never made any claim except to say I did not order magazine nor will I ever pay. The internet is full of complaints with the same story as mine same Company same Collection Agency going back many years! How can this group be stopped?
This is frustrating to hear of such behavior. As a doctor who cares for elderly patients, things like this cause them to distrust the healthcare industry. Which is highly unfortunate, because trust is what is needed most!
Dr. Gietzen
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