In a case which could have ramifications for the adult Internet industry, three California individuals and eight businesses are about to go on trial in a Federal Trade Commission case involving whether they billed consumer credit cards for unordered or fictitious Internet services.
Kenneth H. Taves, Teresa Callei Taves, and Gary Mittman are accused of putting charges on credit cards repeatedly for Net entertainment they didn't want and never ordered. Also cited are their businesses, J.K. Publications, MJD Service Corp., and Net Options, while the FTC complaint also charges they use the business names Netfill, N-Bill, Webtel, and Online Billing. Their trial begins in federal court in Los Angeles March 7.
The FTC filed its original complaint in January 1999. It charges the Taveses and Mittman got consumers' credit and debit card account numbers without their knowledge or approval, billing or debiting them for unwanted services or even those they couldn't use because they didn't even own computers.
Charge items on the bills contained the name of one of the businesses and an 800 telephone number, the FTC says. Customers who called the number to get the charges pulled off their cards usually got a busy signal, no answer, or a recording calling for them to enter their card numbers to discuss charges, but they were often unable to get through to a person to talk about the charges.
Many of the consumers who claimed they were billed repeatedly over several successive months appealed to credit card companies for help, the FTC says, but the companies apparently told them they could not block future charges to the cards.
Several of the consumers cancelled their credit card accounts to avoid the charges, the FTC says, and the commission will ask the court to bar the billing practices permanently while awarding restitution to the consumers in question.
