More than 37,800 student loan borrowers who were tricked by a student loan debt relief operation soon will share more than $3.3 million in restitution, thanks to enforcement action announced
FTC takes on fraudulent student debt relief scams, fake free trials chicagocrusader.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from chicagocrusader.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
The owners and operators of a vast payday lending scheme that overcharged consumers millions of dollars will be permanently banned from the lending industry under the terms of a settlement with the Federal Trade Commission. The settlement also provides that nearly all outstanding debt made up entirely of illegal finance charges held by the company will be deemed as paid in full.
The scheme, which was operated online under the names Harvest Moon Financial, Gentle Breeze Online, and Green Stream Lending, used deceptive marketing to convince consumers that their loans would be repaid in a fixed number of payments. The FTC’s complaint alleged that the company instead continued to draw millions of dollars in payments from consumers’ bank accounts long after the loans’ original principal amount and stated repayment cost had been repaid, and would do so until consumers completely closed their bank accounts or found some other way to cut off payments.