SCAM!        Merchant Services - credit card  DO NOT GIVE THEM ANY INFO......

Report this fraud to the Florida Attorney General or your state Attorney General - action will be taken; a similar fraud was shut down recently.  Posting complaints here isn't going to do anything about it - the reports must be made to the relevant authorities.

U.S. district court, acting at the request of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), has approved a settlement shutting down two groups of Florida-based telemarketers that allegedly flooded consumers with misleading recorded robocalls falsely promising to reduce their credit card interest rates.

The settlement permanently bans the two related operations from making robocalls and selling debt relief services. The orders are the latest in a series of enforcement actions the FTC has taken to rein in robocallers -- especially those who try to take advantage of consumers affected by the economic downturn.

Scammers at work

According to the FTC, JPM Accelerated Services and related defendants made thousands of illegal recorded robocalls to consumers, identifying themselves only as "card services" and offering lower credit card interest rates.

Consumers who pressed "1" after hearing the automated pitch were transferred to live telemarketers who falsely told consumers that JPM's services would allow them to lower their credit card interest rates dramatically.

The telemarketers charged an up-front fee typically ranging from $495 to $995, according to the complaint, and promised consumers they would save thousands of dollars in a short period of time as a result of the lower interest rates, and that they would be able to pay off their debts faster. The defendants also falsely stated that if consumers did not save thousands of dollars from lowered interest rates, they would receive a full refund of the up-front fee.

After collecting the fee from consumers, however, JPM allegedly failed to deliver the promised interest rate reductions and savings, and routinely refused to honor its money-back guarantee. The FTC complaint also charged the defendants with violating the Telemarketing Sales Rule by calling consumers on the Do Not Call Registry, blocking or "spoofing" caller ID and making unlawful robocalls.

Restitution ordered

The settlement orders also impose judgments of $5.9 million against defendants associated with JPM, and $3.2 million against six individual defendants associated with an affiliated operation called IXE Accelerated Financial Centers, LLC. The judgments, representing the amount of money consumers lost through these robocall schemes, are suspended, based on the defendants' inability to pay< But, they will become due if the defendants are found to have misrepresented their financial condition.

Two of the defendants in the IXE operation, Ivan X. Estrella and Jaime Hawley, also are liable for an unsatisfied $75,000 judgment recently entered against them in a case brought by the Florida Attorney General.

The orders were filed in the U.S. District Court for Middle District of Florida, Orlando Division on November 9, 2010, against: 1) Ivan X. Estrella, Jamie M. Hawley, and Kimberly Nelson; and 2) Jeanie B. Robertson, Brooke Robertson, Alexander J. Dent, Micha S. Romano, Paul Pietrzak, and Ashley M. Westbrook. Estrella, Hawley, and Nelson worked with the IXE corporate defendants listed below.

The rest of the individual defendants worked with the JPM corporate defendants. At the FTC's request, the court also has dismissed the charges against Paige Dent.

Corporate defendants

The court is reviewing the FTC's request for a default judgment against the corporate defendants in this case, including the IXE corporate defendants (IXE Accelerated Financial Centers, LLC; and IXE Accelerated Services Inc.), and the JPM corporate defendants (JPM Accelerated Services Inc.; IXE Accelerated Service Centers Inc.; MGA Accelerated Services Inc.; World Class Savings Inc.; Accelerated Savings Inc.; and B&C Financial Group Inc.). The proposed default judgment includes monetary judgments of $3.2 million against the IXE corporations, based in Orlando, Florida, and $5.9 million against the JPM corporations, based in Melbourne, Florida.

International Cooperation

The FTC brought this action with assistance from other law enforcement agencies in the U.S. and Canada, including: the U.S. Postal Inspection Service; the Attorney General of Florida; the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Affairs; the Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission; and the Toronto Strategic Partnership, which includes as member agencies the Competition Bureau Canada; the Toronto Police Service Fraud Squad - Mass Marketing Section; the Ontario Provincial Police Anti-Rackets Section; the Ontario Ministry of Consumer Services; the Royal Canadian Mounted Police; and the United Kingdom's Office of Fair Trading. Assistance also was provided by the Better Business Bureau of Central Florida.

Keeps calling our business line and asks for my wife. The business is in my wifes name. I tell them i will help them she is not in and they hang up. they keep calling every few days. I tell them to stop but they keep calling.

I keep getting calls on my cell from this #.  When I call the # back, it says to press 1 to stop getting these calls.  I've pressed 1, and still get the calls.  I tried staying on the line, but no one answers.  Who are these people?

Called today around 12:07pm.  Sounded like white noise on the other end of the call.

ID said, "Health Alert".

i said waqaa and said my name was marie charles she just hung up on me...

its to bad i like meeting people....

LOL!! Funny Caller ID - "NOT A COLLECTER".  Did not answer.  Number now in my blocked number list.

I just got called from them. They hung up after I answered.  I called back and got a recording asking me if I did not wish to be called back with their special promotions to press 1 to be placed on their do not call list. Which I did

no message. laughed when read ID

Got a call from this number.  They left a "message" - no voice, just a lot a background noise like a lot of cars passing by.

woman asking for the owner told her he was unavailable.  she said she is with merchant services calling about the merchant account if she could speak to someone else. told her NOPE. she hung up.

This is why I use toktumi for my home phone. I have been getting calls and just found a way to add them to a blocked callers list in my toktumi admin! No more calls from these id10ts for me!!

I HAVE RECEIVED NUMEROUS CALLS FROM THIS NUMBER AND IT REALLY IS ANNOYING BECAUSE THEY ARE BURNING MY MINUTES.

Only rings 2 times will not let it ring long enought to let me answer

Calls my cell phone a lot - I've called back and gotten a message that says to press 1 to be placed on their dnc list - I've done that three times now and they're still calling.  When they call it only rings for a couple of seconds so I never get to answer in time to see if anyone is there.

They called and didn't let it ring, so I didn't have time to answer, which looks like a good thing anyway. Been getting scam calls lately. Seems this is at the very least, another unwanted call. Thanks for verifying what I thought might be the case. Really appreciate the site and you all having taken time to leave feedback.....helps all of us.

caller ID says 402-982-0823 just called.  I did not answer; they did not leave message;

It looked familiar, so I scrolled through call history to see "they" called:
5/21/2010 3:23pm CDT
5/13/2010 3:02pm CDT
Both of those times, no message was left.

I just dialed the number back.  It didn't announce a company name or what it was about ... just a recording that stated something to the effect of "If you are calling about a promotion, please hold.  If you would like to be taken off of our marketing list, press "1"."  So I did.  It then said this can take up to 72 hours for their list to be updated."

hung up

They called my business and asked for me by first name.  Didn't want to tell me who they were, but the caller ID said "HEALTH ALERT".  I explained that the person they wanted to talk to was with a customer, and that we accept no phone solicitation, he then said this was about our merchant account and that it wasn't a solicitation, but it sure sounded like it to me.  Said he would call back, although I told him not to bother, that it would have to be in writing.

i just filed a complaint with the National Do Not Call registry.  i have received numerous calls from these jerks and am tired of it.  I have requested to be removed from their calling list several times and they just don't seem to listen.  Something has to be done.

Some kind of a marketing crap deal, u know what I mean Vern?

I have gotten calls from this number as well but I do not answer.  HOWEVER I did have one that called who gave the option of calling another number, opting off their list - so I did and they have never called since.  Might work.

CALL CAME IN AS 4029820823 - WHEN I ANSWERED THEY HUNG UP.

Call came in when I was on phone with important call so I did not switch. When I checked and called the number back it tells me the mobil phone customer is not available.

I received a call from this number (402-982-0823) today on my cell phone.  My home phone forward to cell #, but it shouldn't matter, as both home and cell numbers have been on the Do Not Call list for awhile now.  I was driving.  As I didn't recognize the number and not a local area code, I let it go to voice mail.  No message was left.

I just received a call with caller ID saying from Health Report. I answered and nothing but dial tone

They called my cell phone. No one on the phone.

Same number has called twice today but shows up on my caller id as "Health Alert" .Just more of the same garbage just a different garbage can.

Got a call from them, the guy just mumbled a persons name a few times and then hung up.

received call on business line.  recognized number as previous telemarketer trying to get our creidt card merchant business; so answered pretending to be little girl.  they asked for owner by first name.  i said
daddy not home."  Said they would call back and hung up.  Caller ID says PROCESSING CENTER.