On August 28, the CFPB announced it reached a proposed settlement agreement with a credit repair conglomerate for $2.7 billion. The parties await approval of the proposed settlement by the U.S. District Court for the District of Utah. In its amended complaint filed last August, the CFPB alleged that the defendant companies collected advance…
On July 6, 2023, the FTC announced that it had entered into a consent order with a Florida-based vehicle extended warranty provider and its principal under which both agreed to cease all operations and any further involvement with extended automobile warranty sales as a result of what the FTC alleged were deceptive marketing…
On May 8, 2023 the FTC announced that it filed complaints against two loan forgiveness and debt relief companies on April 24, 2023 alleging that they falsely claimed to be affiliated with the Department of Education. The companies allegedly told students that certain fee payments would count toward repayment programs and student…
On April 29, 2022, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) announced that it reached a settlement with the CEO of a student loan debt relief company to resolve alleged violations of the Telemarketing Sales Rule (TSR), 16 C.F.R. Part 310, and the Consumer Financial Protection Act of 2010 (CFPA), 12 U.S.C. §§ 5531(a),…
On April 15, 2022, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced that it obtained a permanent injunction against an Illinois-based, offshore, for-profit medical school for deceptive marketing practices. In its complaint and stipulated order filed same-day in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, the FTC alleged that the school violated the Telemarketing Sales Rule (TSR) when…
On January 26, 2022, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced that it resolved claims against the remaining defendants in an action concerning student loan debt relief products and services that commenced in 2019. As we previously reported, the FTC filed a complaint against a collection of interrelated companies in November 2019, alleging that they used fraudulent…
On January 18, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) announced that it had agreed to a settlement with a payment processing company, resolving allegations that the company assisted third parties in profiting from fraudulent services and products. The proposed stipulated judgment, if entered by the court, will resolve allegations that the company was processing…
On September 20, 2021, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) announced that it had filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court of the Central District of California against a California-based software company and its owner. The complaint alleges that the software company violated the Telemarking Sales Rule (TSR) and Consumer Financial…
On August 9, 2021, the California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation (DFPI) announced that it had entered into a settlement agreement with a Tustin-based student loan debt relief company, resolving allegations that the company violated the California Consumer Financial Protection Law (CCFPL) when it collected illegal advance fees under the Telemarketing Sales Rule (TSR). This settlement comes as the…
On July 12, 2021, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced a settlement with two Florida-based companies and their CEO, resolving allegations that the companies aided a student debt relief scam by providing false or deceptive information in order to obtain merchant processing for the scheme. The settlement will permanently bar the two…
On June 29, 2021, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) announced it filed a proposed stipulated order with a Maryland-based debt relief and credit repair company concerning alleged violations of the Telemarketing Sales Rule (TSR) and the Consumer Financial Protection Act (CFPA). If accepted by the court, the order would ban the company and its…
On May 17, 2021, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) announced that it has entered into a stipulated judgment and order to resolve a civil action that it previously filed against a debt settlement company in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts on December 1, 2020, as previously reported here. The CFPB initially filed suit against the debt settlement company…
On April 13, 2021 the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) announced that it reached a settlement with an online debt-settlement company to resolve alleged violations of the Consumer Financial Protection Act (CFPA), 12 U.S.C. §§ 5531, 5536(a), 5564, 5565, and the Telemarketing Sales Rule (TSR), 6 C.F.R. Part 310. According to the complaint, the…
On March 16, 2021 the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) announced that it filed a complaint in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California against a California-based student debt relief company, its owner, and manager to resolve alleged violations of the Telemarketing and Consumer Fraud and Abuse Prevention Act, 15…
On March 3, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) announced that it filed a complaint in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois against a Chicago-based payment processor for alleged violations of the Consumer Financial Protection Act (CFPA), 12 U.S.C. §5531 and 5536(a)(1)(B), the Consumer Fraud and Abuse Prevention Act (Telemarketing Act), 15…
On February 11, 2021, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced a $114 million settlement with the owners and operators of an alleged tribal payday lending scheme. The settlement resolves allegations concerning defendants’ purported violations of the unfair or deceptive practice provisions (UDAP) of the Federal Trade Commission Act (FTC Act), 15 U.S.C. § 45(a), the Telemarketing and Consumer Fraud…
On February 10, 2021, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced that it will begin distributing over $1.7 million to consumers that it claims lost money as a result of an alleged student loan debt relief scheme. The payments are part of a 2018 settlement with a student debt relief group, previously covered by Enforcement Watch, that resolved…
On November 20, 2020, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) announced that it had filed a complaint against an Illinois-based debt settlement company and the company’s owners for alleged violations of Telemarketing Sales Rule (TSR), 16 C.F.R. § 310.4, and the Consumer Financial Protection Act (CFPA), 12 U.S.C. § 5536….
On November 5, 2020, the Consumer Protection Financial Bureau (CFPB) announced that it had filed a complaint against a California student loan debt settlement company and the company’s CEO in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California. The complaint alleges that the company violated the Telemarketing Sales…
On July 24, 2020, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced that it settled charges with the operators of a Florida-based company that allegedly defrauded financially-distressed and often older-adult consumers with deceptive robocalls. The proposed court order would ban the defendants from selling debt relief services and from all telemarketing based on…