The telemarketing company told organizations that it will send an e-mail containing an offer and costs for subscription and hoped that they will become subscribers.
The FTC alleged that AFS defendants created the notion that they are sending free samples with no obligations. In fact, they instantly enrolled the organizations into their subscription service and will charge them for the samples unless they cancel and return the sample books. They usually billed organizations hundreds of dollars for an annual newsletter with book subscription.
The organizations complained that the defendants billed them for subscriptions they did not order and in most cases, did not receive. Once organizations failed to pay the bill for the unwanted subscription after six months, the AFS defendants then forwarded their accounts to ICR.
ICR used false threats to force the organizations to pay their supposed debt to the AFS defendants.
The AFS defendants and ICR violated the FTC Act the Unordered Merchandise Statute by engaging in deceptive acts.
