Judge: 3 Orlando firms must end scheme

A federal judge last week ordered a group of Orlando businesses to halt what investigators claim is a “bogus” credit card debt reduction scheme, one that has gone on for more than six years and potentially stolen millions of dollars from unknowing Americans.

As far back as 2014, the Federal Trade Commission and Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody allege that Gino and Grace De Paz and Shabana Khublal, operators of the three businesses involved in the operation, deceived people into paying for services that promised to help them pay off their credit card debt.

Telemarketers over the years have developed ways to call people en mass. Last summer, for instance, the FTC sued a Kissimmee man who they alleged had over a decade used a computer system he developed to robocall millions of people. In one six-month period alone he made over 57 million calls.

In the Orlando case, telemarketers from GDP Network, G & G Success and G & N Squared — the companies went by several other names as well — would cold call people and make it seem like they were affiliated with their credit card company, a lawsuit filed in U.S. District court said. They would trick clients into giving them their Social Security numbers and credit card numbers, under the guise of confirming their identity or checking to see if they were eligible for the company’s services, the suit states.

The FTC did not specify exactly how many people were defrauded in the scheme.

U.S. District Judge Wendy Berger in Orlando ordered an emergency injunction against all three companies, freezing their assets and appointing a third party,

Jonathan Perlman of the Florida law firm Genovese Joblove & Battista, to oversee the businesses. The FTC is seeking refunds for customers as part of the federal suit.

“Defendants promise, for a sizable upfront free, to substantially and permanently reduce consumers’ credit card interest rates, thereby saving consumers thousands of dollars and enabling them to pay off their debts much faster,” reads the lawsuit.

” … In many instances, Defendants claim that they can obtain interest rates as low as 0% for consumers.”

The companies would then turn around and apply for new credit cards with low starter rates in the clients’ names, something the clients usually didn’t find out about until after they were contacted by the companies where the schemers had signed up for new cards, the lawsuit says.

Soon after, clients learned the low introductory interest rates were only temporary and there were often hefty transfer fees they now also had to pay.

At the same time, clients were reportedly being charged upfront fees, in some cases as high as $3,995 — a violation of telemarketing laws that explicitly prohibit debt-reduction companies from charging fees until they’ve actually renegotiated or reduced debt for the client.

Once clients realized they’d been had, it was nearly impossible to get hold of representatives from the companies, and only on rare occasions did they get their money refunded.

In most cases, according to the lawsuit, clients never had their interest rates permanently reduced and were only left with more debt and worse credit.

“It is reprehensible that fraudsters would exploit the trust of individuals searching for financial stability— often leaving them in even greater debt,” Moody said in a statement. “These telemarketing scammers hid their identities and reaped millions of dollars at the expense of vulnerable consumers.”

Anyone with information about this case, can call the hotline 1-833-984-1102.

JENNY KANE/AP Three Orlando companies deceived people into paying for services that promised to help them pay off their credit card debt, a lawsuit alleges.