"Slamming Scamming"
The offer was for a free trial of internet services, but when companies signed on they were stunned to find that this trial offer was anything but free.
You've heard of unscrupulous telemarketers, but these guys take the cake.
Mark Hayward, Director, Small Business Administration
"By using the Small Business Administration name, they were trying to lure people in to recognizing something of good service."
Call for Action learned that the company is called sbaonline, the FTC claims the company tried to confuse businesses into believing they were the real deal, unfortunately, it worked.
The telemarketers are accused of contacting businesses to interest them in buying commercial services allegedly offered by their organization, or in paying to become members of the SBA. Many of the businesses contacted signed up for a free trial offer, only to have their telephone billed without their knowledge.
Mark
"This is a free service, all of the SBA information online is free, you don't have to pay for anything."
In this case the victims were being billed $29.95 a month. This deceptive practice is called cramming when a business is billed for services that were never authorized and have little value.
Mark
"We're going to continue to put the good word out and the fact that if you've been scammed by this, call the FTC.:"
sbaonline agreed to notify customers that they are being billed for web services and also to permit customers to cancel any unauthorized service.
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