Sunday, January 31, 2010
Telemarketing companies that scam consumers out of their money are being aided by some of the biggest banks in the country, according to a class action case filed in a Pennsylvania federal court. The lawsuit names five national banks—Wells Fargo, Wachovia, Zions First National Bank of Utah, National Penn Bank and Harleysville National Bank—that have allegedly helped telemarketing firms launder money out of the United States to the Caribbean, Canada and India.
Banks are either knowingly or unknowingly serving as accomplices in the crimes by following the instructions of fraudulent telemarketers that con people into revealing their personal banking information, allowing the companies to withdraw funds without authorization. The telemarketers named in the lawsuit are NetDeposit, MP Technologies (dba Modern Payments) and Teledraft.
-Noel Brinkerhoff
Banks & Telemarketers in Cahoots, Class Says (by Barbara Leonard, Courthouse News Service)
Reynaldo Reyes v. Zions First National Bank, et al. (U.S. District Court, Eastern Pennsylvania) (pdf)
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