FTC Begins Sending Refunds to Victims of Debt Relief Scheme

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has begun sending more than $5 million in refunds to consumers who were harmed by a deceptive credit card debt relief scheme.

The funds in this distribution came from ACRO Services, which operated under multiple names and ran the scheme, and BlueSnap, which provided payment processing services and profited from the scheme, the FTC said in a Tuesday (Jan. 21) press release.

The FTC’s complaint against ACRO Services charged that it ran a deceptive telemarketing operation that made phony debt relief promises to consumers, charged consumers unlawful upfront enrollment fees, and charged monthly fees for “credit monitoring” services, according to the release.

ACRO Services operated under names that included American Consumer Rights Organization, Consumer Protection Resources, Reliance Solutions, Thacker & Associates and Tri Star Consumer Group, the release said.

The individual defendants in that case agreed to a settlement order banning them from the debt relief and telemarketing industries and requiring them to surrender assets to be used to refund consumers.

Payment processor BlueSnap and its former CEO Ralph Dangelmaier and former Senior Vice President Terry Monteith agreed to a settlement order that required them to pay $10 million and stop processing payments for debt collection or debt relief companies and for companies listed in a fraud monitoring program.

In a statement emailed to PYMNTS at the time of that settlement, BlueSnap CEO Henry Helgeson, whose arrival as CEO was one of several changes at the company’s senior management level, said that the company regrets the actions of the former employees, intends to comply with all FTC directives and has always had tools in place to identify fraudulent activity on its platform — though those tools were ignored by the executives charged by the FTC.

In the distribution of refunds announced Tuesday, the FTC is sending checks to 7,687 consumers, according to the press release.

In another, separate case, the FTC said in December that it got a court order to shutter Superior Service in a student debt relief case.

FTC lawsuits resulted in over $324 million in refunds to consumers in 2023, the regulator said in a June press release.