Court asked to shut down $70 million cramming operation

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) wants to shut down an operation that allegedly placed more than $70 million in bogus charges on consumers' phone bills -- charges for services the consumers never ordered, did not authorize and often did not know they had.

In addition, the agency has asked a U.S. district court to freeze the operation's assets while the case moves forward.

Cramming crackdown

As part of a continuing crackdown on fraud and deception, the FTC filed a complaint against American eVoice, Ltd., eight other companies, Steven Sann, and three other people for "cramming" unauthorized charges onto consumers' phone bills.

The complaint also alleges that the Missoula, Montana-area defendants transferred the proceeds from their illegal cramming operation to a purported non-profit, Bibliologic, Ltd., controlled by Steven Sann.

Hundreds of consumers complained that charges from $9.95 to $24.95 per month suddenly appeared on their phone bills without their authorization. The FTC claims defendants told phone companies and third party "billing aggregators" that the consumers had authorized the charges by filling out forms on the internet. Since January 2008, according to the complaint, the defendants have billed consumers for more than $70 million.

Additional charges

The FTC alleged that the defendants violated the Federal Trade Commission Act by:

• unfairly billing consumers for services they did not authorize; and
• deceptively representing that consumers were obligated to pay for the services.

The FTC also alleged that defendants channeled their illegal proceeds to Bibliologic, and that the purported non-profit organization has no right to the funds and must disgorge them to the FTC.

The complaint names as defendants Steven Sann; Terry Lane (aka Terry Sann); Nathan Sann; Robert Braach; American eVoice, Ltd.; Emerica Media Corp.; FoneRight, Inc.; Global Voice Mail, Ltd.; HearYou2, Inc.; Network Assurance, Inc.; SecuratDat, Inc.; Techmax Solutions, Inc.; and Voice Mail Professionals, Inc. The complaint also names Bibliologic, Ltd. as a relief defendant.