PHOENIX (CN) - Federal prosecutors say Business Recovery Services, a Mesa-based telemarketer, defrauds customers by selling "hundreds of variations" of bogus "do-it-yourself recovery kits," which do not help its victims recover money, as promised.
Since 2008, defendant Brian Hessler and his business have used telemarketers to tell "hundreds of variations of their kits, with each variation directed to consumer victims of a particular business opportunity or work-at-home venture," according to the federal complaint.
Some kits are directed to "victims of business opportunity or work-at-home ventures that are defunct or otherwise unable to return funds to consumers," prosecutors say.
Hessler charges $99 to $499 for each "kit."
And despite his promises, Hessler and BRS do not wait seven business days after their victims have recovered money "to charge or bill the consumer for the kits," but "immediately charge or bill the consumer ... despite that the consumers did not recover any funds," the complaint states.
Hessler and BRS "misrepresented, directly or by implication, material aspects of the performance, efficacy, nature, or central characteristics of the goods that are the subject of their sales offer, including that consumers who purchase and use Defendants' do-it-yourself recovery kits will recover or are highly likely to recover a substantial portion of monies that the consumers previously paid to third-party business opportunity and work-at-home ventures," prosecutors says.
Uncle Sam seeks fines and disgorgement, rescission of contracts and restitution, and an injunction to stop defendants from continuing to violate the Federal Trade Commission Act and the Telemarketing Sales Rule.
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