Court Order Bans Company From Selling Recovery Services, Telemarketing, per FTC Request

A court order issued at the FTC’s request bans Consumer Collection Advocates and Michael Robert Ettus from selling advance fee recovery services and from telemarketing, an FTC news release said Monday. The court order resolves a 2014 FTC complaint that alleged the defendants illegally collected money from consumers, many of them elderly, in fraudulent telemarketing recovery scams, it said. The final order prohibits the defendants from misrepresenting any product or service, collecting payments for any recovery service, selling rights to collect for such service, profiting from customers’ personal information, and failing to properly dispose of customer information, it said. The order also imposes a judgment of more than $2.8 million, it said. U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida issued the final order of permanent injunction Sept. 28 after granting the FTC’s motion for summary judgment Sept. 9. The defendants have appealed the court’s decision, it said.