On the heels of the FTC’s settlement with the makers of the Snuggie, three more FTC refund settlements have consumers getting at least some of their money back. The Federal Trade Commission is a federal agency holds businesses accountable for reported deceptive advertising and works to get consumers who fall victim to illegal business practices their due justice. To see if you are getting one or more FTC refund checks in the mail soon, read on.
Did you buy weight loss products Original Pure Forskolin and Original White Kidney Bean from Tachht, Inc.? Consumers who purchased these sham weight loss products will be getting justice to the tune of $437,000 in total refund checks. According the FTC, Tachht’s deceptive practices included sending illegal spam emails from hacked email accounts, making it seem like the email came from the consumer’s family member or friend.
“The email messages appeared to be a quick note from a family member or friend, passing along a link to an interesting news story. The links in those email messages led to websites deceptively promoting the defendants’ unproven weight-loss products, such as Original Pure Forskolin and Original White Kidney Bean. These websites deceptively claimed that the defendants’ products could cause weight loss of 17 pounds in 4 weeks, or 41.7lbs in 2.5 months.”
The scheme even used fake endorsements from celebrities, such as Oprah Winfrey, to market their bogus weight loss products. The FTC has tasked refund administrator, Rust Consulting, to mail out the 18,301 refund checks, which are expected to go out March 15, 2018. If you have questions about this FTC refund, contact 866-207-7028.
In a second FTC refund settlement, more than $489,000 will be dispersed to 10,415 consumers who fell victim to a tax relief scam. American Tax Relief reportedly ripped off consumers by promising that they could lower their tax debts. Under the terms of the settlement, American Tax Relief and its owners are prohibited from telemarketing and selling debt relief services. This is actually the third and final round of payouts in this case, with consumers recouping 16 percent on average of what they paid to ATR. In total, the FTC has issued over $16.4 million in refund settlement checks to nearly 18,600 consumers duped by American Tax Relief. If you have questions about this FTC refund, you may contact the refund administrator, Gilardi & Co LLC at 1-877-430-3699.
The third FTC refund settlement involves a telemarketing tech support scam. According to the FTC, Advanced Tech Support, also doing business as Inbound Call Experts used high pressured sales tactics to lure hundreds of thousands of consumers into purchasing computer services and technical subscriptions they didn’t actually need. Under the terms of the settlement, Advanced Tech Support will payout $10 million for their deceptive practices. Approximately 36,830 individuals who bought tech support services or other related product from ATS or ICE between April 2012 and November 2014, can expect to receive a partial refund check averaging about $277.44. If you were a victim of this tech support scam and have questions, please contact the refund administrator, Analytics, at 877-793-0908.
The FTC also reminds consumers in these three refund settlements to cash their checks within 60 days. For more information about these FTC refunds and more, you can visit www.FTC.gov/refunds.