Five people charged in 10-year telemarketing scam in Canada

Canada's federal regulators have charged five people and three companies with scamming more than 150 million Canadian dollars (135 million U.S. dollars) from more than 50, 000 Canadian and American businesses over a decade.

The individuals, who are principals or decision makers in the companies, are accused of running telemarketing operations that sold listings in business directories that did not exist or were useless, Don Mercer, assistant deputy commissioner of the federal agency Competition Bureau, told reporters Friday.

The bureau alleges the telemarketers contacted small and medium-sized businesses in Canada and the United States, claiming that they were updating information in their business directory listings and implying that the business had ordered a listing in the past.

Mercer said the tactic is called a "presumed sale," and it takes advantage of people's trust. With amounts like 300 Canadian dollars (270 dollars) at stake, companies sometimes did not pay much attention to the spending.

At the peak in 2002, the three companies with similar names - Datacom Marketing Inc. , Datacom Direct Inc. and Datacom Marketing Inc. - duped over 50,000 Canadian and American businesses out of more than 23 million Canadian dollars (21 million dollars) worth of business, the bureau said.

Mercer said the companies were "real businesses," with as many as 400 telemarketers working in Montreal and Toronto at one time.

The Competition Bureau received more than 150 complaints about the business. The bureau said the three companies and five people face various combinations of Competition Act and Criminal Code charges.

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission announced this week that a U.S.district court has ordered a temporary halt and asset freeze against these same defendants.

Source: Xinhua