
The FTC has fined an internet payday loan referral site for charging people $54.95 for a debit card. These debit cards have no money in their account but funds can be added should you have any extra after being unknowingly charged this fee. It seems that this payday loan referral site had arranged to have a box pre-checked on the loan application that authorized the charge for the debit card.
According to the FTC complaint, Swish Marketing Inc., and its three officers, Mark Benning, Matthew Patterson, and Jason Strober, operated websites advertising short-term, or “payday,” loan matching services. The websites included an online loan application form that tricked consumers into unknowingly ordering a debit card when they applied for a loan online. . On numerous sites, clicking the button for submitting loan applications led to four product offers unrelated to the loan, each with tiny “Yes” and “No” buttons. “No” was pre-clicked for three of them; “Yes” was pre-clicked for a debit card, with fine-print disclosures asserting the consumer’s consent to have their bank account debited. Consumers who simply clicked a prominent “Finish matching me with a payday loan provider!” button were charged for the debit card. Other websites touted the card as a “bonus” and disclosed the fee only in fine print below the submit button. As a result, consumers allegedly were improperly charged up to $54.95 each. In August 2009, the FTC charged these marketers and VirtualWorks LLC, the debit card company that helped them design the online offers, with deceptive business practices. The debit card company paid Swish Marketing up to $15 for each transaction. The debit card company defendants have settled the charges against them.
The settlement order announced today with Jason Strober, the Vice President of Product Development and/or Engineering of Swish Marketing, bars him from misrepresenting material facts about a product or service, such as the cost or the method for charging consumers. He also is permanently prohibited from misrepresenting that a product or service is free or a “bonus” without disclosing all material terms and conditions, and from charging consumers without first disclosing what billing information will be used, the amount to be paid, how and on whose account the payment will be assessed, and all material terms and conditions. The order further requires that transactions be affirmatively authorized by consumers, and that Strober, in marketing financial products or services, monitor his affiliates to ensure compliance with the order. He also is required to provide specific cooperation to the FTC in its ongoing litigation. In addition, the order requires him to pay $850,000.
NOTE: Stipulated final orders are for settlement purposes only and do not constitute an admission by the defendants of a law violation. Stipulated orders have the full force of law when signed by the judge. The Commission issues a complaint when it has “reason to believe” that the law has been or is being violated, and it appears to the Commission that a proceeding is in the public interest.
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