FTC Issues Refund Checks for Telemarketing Credit Card Scam

Aspiring home-based business owners who purchased business development services and products from Top Shelf Marketing and its affiliates will soon be reimbursed for their losses.

According to the Federal Trade Commission’s website, 3,863 checks totaling nearly $1.2 million have been mailed out to individuals who paid for business development services from companies including Top Shelf Marketing, Reliable Business Consultants, Creative Business Setup, Legal Entity Providers, and Power House Data.

These refund checks average $309.20 and recipients are instructed to deposit or cash their checks by Dec. 27, 2016.

A Stipulated Order for Permanent Injunction and Monetary Judgment was filed by the FTC and agreed to by Top Shelf Marketing and its interrelated entities.

Under the order, the companies are permanently restricted and enjoined from advertising, marketing, promoting, or offering for sale any business coaching service or work-at-home opportunity.

The order also prohibits the defendants from participating in credit card laundering and bans deceptive telemarketing practices.

Further, a judgment of $16 million was entered in favor of the FTC against the defendants as equitable monetary relief, with $50,000 paid directly to the FTC.

The FTC initiated the lawsuit against Top Shelf Marketing and its affiliates in January 2016 alleging the companies participated in a deceptive marketing enterprise designed to help consumers create home-based businesses by engaging in a telemarketing scheme.

Bringing claims of violations of the Telemarketing Act and a provision of the FTC Act which prohibits unfair of deceptive acts or practices affecting consumers, the commission sought a permanent injunction and monetary relief to put an immediate stop to Top Shelf Marketing’s telemarketing enterprise and hold the company liable for millions of dollars of consumer harm.

The telemarketing scheme purportedly promised successful home-based internet businesses to people who bought their business development products and services, but most people lost thousands of dollars when the defendants used “sham arrangements with shell companies to gain unauthorized access to credit card processing services.”

“[Defendants] induced consumers to pay thousands of dollars – most of it charged on their credit cards-by falsely promising, among other things, that their services will enable consumers’ home-based businesses to succeed and be profitable,” the FTC complaint states.

But the FTC challenged the reported deceptive telemarketing practices of Top Shelf Marketing, noting that consumers who purchased the business development services and products, did not end up with a functional online business, earned little or no money, and ended up heavily in debt.

Additionally, the FTC accused the companies of using “straw men and dummy companies” to promulgate its scheme by obtaining merchant accounts needed to accept consumers’ credit card payments.

“[Defendants] have engaged in this unlawful practice known as credit card laundering with other defendants…who helped secure and maintain these merchant accounts for this telemarketing scheme,” the complaint reads.

If you have questions regarding the Top Shelf Marketing refund, you can contact the FTC’s refund administrator, Rust Consulting Inc. at 1-866-384-9365.

The Top Shelf Marketing Business Development Scam Lawsuit is Federal Trade Commission v. Top Shelf Marketing Corp., et al., Case No. 1:16-cv-00206, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.

UPDATE: July 2017, the FTC announced that it would be mailing a second round of checks to consumers who fell victim to the business development services offered from Top Shelf Marketing, Reliable Business Consultants, Creative Business Setup, Legal Entity Providers, and Power House Data. An additional 3,326 checks worth more than $154,000 were mailed to those affected by the telemarketing credit card scam.