Conversion Marketing
"A telemarketing operation selling tooth whitening kits and weight-loss patches will pay $463,000 in consumer redress and $11,000 in civil penalties to settle Federal Trade Commission charges. The FTC alleged that the defendants promised "free" samples of the tooth whitening kits, then debited consumers' accounts without their authorization. The FTC further alleged that the defendants made false and unsubstantiated claims about their weight-loss patches and called consumers listed on the National Do Not Call Registry."
The history of this FTC action is itself fascinating. The scheme morphed along into different disguises for about four years before it ran out of steam.
What is interesting about this scheme, apart from compliance techniques, is how easy it would have been to identify some serious problems.
1. A whois of the website reveals that it was registered by Conversion Marketing, a California Corporation.
2. A trip to the California Corporation website would have revealed the Conversion Marketing's corporate status had been cancelled in 2002.
Strangely the product hawked on the website is still available at the yahoo store.
