If you haven’t received the frequent, annoying and intrusive robocall from “Rachel” with “Cardholder Services,” you’re a rarity. But it turns out the calls offering interest rate reductions to consumers with large balances and high interest rates on their credit cards are more than just exasperating. They’re fraudulent.
Arizona Attorney General Tom Horne has filed a lawsuit in Maricopa County Superior Court alleging that several related Arizona and out-of-state telemarketing companies have defrauded thousands of consumers nationwide out of millions of dollars since 2006.
Consumers who answered robocalls or other sales calls were told the company could negotiate lower credit card interest rates and provide them with a 0% credit card to transfer their balances. Consumers were guaranteed a savings of $2,500 in interest and finance charges for their payment of $900 or more for the service. However, customers rarely received an actual interest rate reduction or low rate credit card, but instead received a computer generated payment plan that simply demonstrated they could save money by making higher monthly payments to their highest interest rate credit cards.
The complaint accuses the defendants of violating the Arizona Consumer Fraud Act, the Arizona Credit Services Act and the Arizona Telephone Solicitations Act, and asks the Court to bar defendants from further telemarketing, impose civil penalties for each Defendant of up to $10,000 for each violation as well as provide restitution to the victims. The Federal Trade Commission has also commenced legal action against the defendants and provided valuable cooperation and assistance to the State in the investigation into this matter.
This case was handled by Assistant Attorney General Rebecca Salisbury. The complaint, which names the defendants and their companies, can be read here.
BRAVO!! I get those lousy calls on a routine basis. I have even pushed “One” to get a live person. When I’ve asked them to remove my name from their call list, I always hear a hang-up click in my ear.
I hope they are fined out of existence.
AG Horne is doing a great job for the people of the state of AZ. The newspaper wants all Republicans gone, but will endorse those who lean left like Flake, Kyl and McCain. The media liberals are feeling emboldened these days. I will be singing in the shower the day the Repulsive folds, which I expect will be within the next two to five years…once all of the swindlers with keyboards leave with their retirements.
I’ve received numerous such calls and have been frustrated that they keep coming at breakneck speed. Thank you Mr. Horne and Ms. Salisbury for taking these con artists on! This is such an invasion of my time and space, besides being crooked and taking advantage of people in need, who are underwater with bills, with many having lost their jobs under the pathetic administration of Barack Hussein Obama.
This is a little puzzling. Is “Rachel” and “Cardholder Services” a franchise? I thought it was a commune of Hitler Youth in Oregon.
Pushing “1″ can result in the best revenge, you’re likely to get a different live person each time. Act interested but skeptical, taking more of their time to reel you in. About three personal questions in, they want credit card numbers and expiration dates.
At this point you sound a little reluctant, but ask them to hold while you retrieve your cards. Then you simply lay the phone down and see how long they’ll hold before hanging up. With a little tact, you can waste up to 15 minutes of their scam time. I did this about three days ago, waiting to see if this got me off their list. Lord knows, calling them !?!#@$%#! didn’t.