LARGO FLORIDA - Gayla Scott, a single mother, thought of her 11-year-old son's upcoming birthday celebration when she got a telephone call from a telemarketer offering a four-day vacation package in Orlando.
Because the caller already knew the name of Scott's bank, the bank's routing number, and had called her company cell phone, Scott thought the offer was legitimate, she said Wednesday.
It wasn't, federal authorities said.
When Scott received information on the getaway in the mail, she thought she had a 10-day grace period to make a final decision on the package. But the telemarketing company started taking hundreds of dollars out of her bank account in two days, she said.
The Fort Myers woman is among more than 5,000 consumers nationwide who have complained about the company, which goes by its current name of Strategia Marketing. It is more commonly known locally by its previous name, Suntasia Marketing, authorities said.
On Wednesday, federal and local authorities swooped down on the company's building at 8751 Ulmerton Road and shut down the business, if only temporarily. More than 700 employees work there.
"This may be the biggest telemarketing fraud I've ever seen," said C. Steven Baker, the director of the Federal Trade Commission's Chicago office, which is spearheading the investigation.
The FTC estimates consumers have been defrauded of tens, and perhaps hundreds, of millions of dollars.
Dozens of telemarketers showing up for work Wednesday were left dumbfounded as they were handed notices about the shutdown while Largo police officers, U.S. postal inspectors and FTC investigators entered the building.
"I don't know what to think," telemarketer Timothy Harvey said. "I come here to do an honest day's work for an honest day's pay and we get shut down, so it makes us think maybe we weren't doing such an honest job."
"I am very up forward, with telling people the truth and things like that," said Sherry Wise, another telemarketer. "I was under no impression that any laws were broken, so it's kind of overwhelming."
Company's Assets Frozen
At the request of the FTC, U.S. District Judge James S. Moody Jr. on Monday entered a 10-day temporary restraining order that puts a stop to the company's operations, freezes the assets of the six men the FTC says run the company, and appoints a receiver to oversee the corporation as the case begins to wend through court. Among the assets is a yacht, Baker said.
A hearing is scheduled Wednesday.
According to the Better Business Bureau, the man who runs the company is Bryon W. Wolf. He, along with his brother, Jeffrey P. Wolf; the two men's father, Alfred H. Wolf; the company's general counsel, Donald L. Booth; and two other men, Roy A. Eliasson and John Louis Smith II, are the six men identified in court papers by the FTC.
None of them faces criminal charges.
The six have used at least 15 company names, in addition to Suntasia, when charging consumers' bank accounts, "an approach designed to prevent the public and law enforcement from realizing the scheme's true scope," according to the FTC's 53-page request for the temporary restraining order.
Ostensibly, Suntasia is marketing buyers' and travel clubs, but because company officials realize most consumers wouldn't pay to belong to them, the company uses a range of deceptive practices to trick consumers into revealing their bank account numbers, the request says.
Free Gifts Come At A Price, FTC Says
That's what Scott said her telemarketer did to her. Often, the telemarketers pretended to be associated with a consumer's bank and purported to be calling to offer free gifts, the FTC's request says. But to obtain the gifts, the consumer was asked to "verify" bank account information the telemarketer pretended to already possess, the document says.
And the so-called free gifts weren't free, said Baker, the FTC regional director. To receive the gift, consumers unwittingly agreed to sign on with one of Suntasia's clubs for a year, with more than $100 a month getting plucked from victims' bank accounts, according to the FTC.
The "gifts" were typically $400 in American airline savings vouchers, which consumers mistakenly thought was an American Airlines voucher, or $100 in gas coupons, or two free nights in a hotel, the FTC says. There are so many conditions, however, that the vouchers and coupons essentially are worthless, the FTC says.
As with Scott, many consumers didn't think the trial period for a particular offer began until they received the information in the mail. At Suntasia, unknown to the consumers, the trial period begins when the telemarketing call is made, so money is withdrawn from a person's account before the consumer expects it to be, FTC officials said.
And it is difficult to get out of one of Suntasia's programs, Baker said. Suntasia sometimes ignores cancellation requests altogether, or refuses to issue refunds until a consumer complains to the police or another entity, according to the federal agency.
Scott said she didn't get back the $293.30 taken out of her account until she complained to the Better Business Bureau.
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