Telephony Fraudster Gets Lifetime Ban from Telecom Business

coondoggie passed us another NetworkWorld link, this one discussing the banning of a shady telecom tycoon convicted for 'cramming'. "The owner of three companies that billed more than $30 million in bogus collect call charges, an activity known as cramming, to millions of consumers throughout the country, has been banned forever from all billing on local telephone bills. Willoughby Farr agreed to the lifetime ban as part of a federal court order settling Federal Trade Commission charges that he directed a massive unauthorized billing scam for more than two and a half years. The settlement contains a monetary judgment of $34,547,140, which will be partially satisfied by Farr's transfer to the Commission of all but $7,500 of his frozen assets, the FTC said."

Comments

Market prices

[KublaiKhan]

So what's it cost to set up a 419-scam workshop in a west African country these days? About $7000?

Re:Market prices

[DahGhostfacedFiddlah]

YES IT COSTS US$7000 TO SET UP GUARANTEED MONEY MAKING SCAM. WE WISH TO START SUCH A SCAM. HOWEVER, BY VIRTUE OF OUR POSITION AS CIVIL SERVANTS AND MEMBERS OF THIS PANEL, WE CANNOT ACQUIRE THIS MONEY IN OUR NAMES. I HAVE THEREFORE, BEEN DELEGATED AS A MATTER OF TRUST BY MY COLLEAGUES OF THE PANEL TO LOOK FOR AN OVERSEAS PARTNER INTO WHOSE ACCOUNT WE WOULD TRANSFER THE SUM OF US$21,320,000.00(TWENTY ONE MILLION, THREE HUNDRED AND TWENTY THOUSAND U.S DOLLARS). HENCE WE ARE WRITING YOU THIS LETTER. WE HAVE AGREED TO SHARE THE MONEY THUS; 1. 20% FOR THE ACCOUNT OWNER 2. 70% FOR US (THE OFFICIALS) 3. 10% TO BE USED IN SETTLING TAXATION AND ALL LOCAL AND FOREIGN EXPENSES. IT IS FROM THE 70% THAT WE WISH TO COMMENCE THE SCAM.

PLEASE,NOTE THAT THIS TRANSACTION IS 100% SAFE AND WE HOPE TO COMMENCE THE TRANSFER LATEST SEVEN (7) BANKING DAYS FROM THE DATE OF THE RECEIPT OF THE FOLLOWING INFORMATIOM BY TEL/FAX; 234-1-7740449, YOUR COMPANY'S SIGNED, AND STAMPED LETTERHEAD PAPER THE ABOVE INFORMATION WILL ENABLE US WRITE LETTERS OF CLAIM AND JOB DESCRIPTION RESPECTIVELY. THIS WAY WE WILL USE YOUR COMPANY'S NAME TO APPLY FOR PAYMENT AND RE-AWARD THE CONTRACT IN YOUR COMPANY'S NAME.

WE ARE LOOKING FORWARD TO DOING THIS BUSINESS WITH YOU AND SOLICIT YOUR CONFIDENTIALITY IN THIS TRANSATION. PLEASE ACKNOWLEDGE THE RECEIPT OF THIS LETTER USING THE ABOVE TEL/FAX NUMBERS. I WILL SEND YOU DETAILED INFORMATION OF THIS PENDING PROJECT WHEN I HAVE HEARD FROM YOU.

YOURS FAITHFULLY,

DR CLEMENT OKON

NOTE; PLEASE QUOTE THIS REFERENCE NUMBER (VE/S/09/99) IN ALL YOUR RESPONSES

That's a fine?

[IronChef]

The settlement contains a monetary judgment of $34,547,140, which will be partially satisfied by Farr's transfer to the Commission of all but $7,500 of his frozen assets, the FTC said.

He billed about $30M in false charges... and it seems like that money is being used to pay the fine.

Please, someone tell me I am wrong.

Re:That's a fine?

[flyingsquid]

30 Miliion??? For that amount he should be banned from breathing.

Come on, go easy on the guy. He's clearly suffered quite a bit already, if he's had to go through his entire life with the first name "Willoughby".

Re:That's a fine?

[raju1kabir]

Unfortunately, he only had about $700K in assets, so he's really repaying about 2% of it. The rest went up his nose or something.

Re:That's a fine?

[Mr. Underbridge]

Unfortunately, he only had about $700K in assets, so he's really repaying about 2% of it. The rest went up his nose or something.

You may seize my assets, but you can't erase the memories of night after night spent with mountains of coke and all the hookers my Viagra-riddled knob can handle!

give me a break

[Anonymous Coward]

So, lets see... If i smoke a joint in some states i go to jail. If i bilk millions of people out of tens of millions of dollars i get.... probation, and a fine.

This is so bs, asswipe(s) should be thrown in jail. Sounds like someone's back got scratched.

Re:give me a break

[psychodelicacy]

How frightened are you of being scammed out of $10? What would that do to your life? How frightened are you of being attacked, raped, beaten, or murdered? The answers you would get to those questions from most people should tell you why they may react less strongly to someone who has stolen little amounts of money from millions of people.

How much to the Consumer?

[Farakin]

Why isn't this money being refunded to the consumer? When I read stories like this, and the ones where the FCC levies fines for unacceptable practices I see the consumers that were affected getting screwed. I may be missing something here, but I AM ANGRY!!

Re:How much to the Consumer?

[plague3106]

Well, personally if a collect call appeared on my bill I'd dispute it. I would hope others do the same. If you can't be bothered to look at your bill, oh well.

Re:How much to the Consumer?

[veganboyjosh]

I checked this out a while ago. My sister spent some time locked up, and I wanted to be able to receive collect calls from her. She tried calling my cell number a few times, but was told the number wouldn't accept them. I never got a call. I called T-Mobile to "activate" a collect call um...authorization/ability/whatever, and was informed that I couldn't accept collect calls on my phone. Even if I wanted to. The CSR told me they didn't have the ability to allow it, due to customers denying collect call charges once they appeared on the bill. I couldn't tell if it was just a policy to turn collect call receiving off to begin with, and with a little pushing they'd allow them, but after 30 minutes of going up their chain of command, and no different answer, I gave up.

I'm sure someone else here knows more about this than me (or the not-so-helpful T-Mobile CSR's.)

Re:Can someone explain?

[spleen_blender]

Because he is a human being who still needs a means to be a productive member of society unless you want him to fall into the shady underbelly of crime as most other people in prison do when they are released.

Whose lifetime, his or the industry's?

[davidwr]

The "Local telephone bill" as an entity probably won't around in another 10 or 20 years.

Either he's turned a new leaf or he's hasn't. If he has, the ban is moot. If he hasn't, he'll find another way to be a crook.

Re:Legal question

[Servo5678]

That depends. Who is your daddy and what does he do?

Re:Can someone explain?

[spun]

When was the last time a judge said to a drug addict "spit it up and we'll let you go"? Last Friday. Wait, a judge? Well, the talking camel did claim to be a judge, but the chocolate fish said he was more of an arbitrator...

Why is this legal?

[og_sh0x]

Can someone tell me why it's even legal to put these charges on the phone bill? On more than one occasion I've had to deal with services being crammed this way, and I don't even think it was from this guy, the service that billed me was not mentioned in TFA. Why should we allow this sleaze to continue? Does anyone know of a way to opt out of this, similar to declining long distance and 1-900 calls on your phone?

Re:Why is this legal?

[tompaulco]

I once had a bogus charge on my local bill. It was for a sports hotline. I have not interest in sports, so obviously did not call it. I called and complained to the phone company, who said they could not remove the charge (why not. you put it there.) They said I had to call the company directly. Why? I have no relationship with them. So I called them and they said that basically computers don't make mistakes and if it says I called then I called. I told them I wouldn't pay, and they said that they would put it on my credit record and give it to a collections bureau. So essentially, any company can put a charge on your phone line and without proof demand payment, and if you don't pay it, they will ruin your credit.
The landlines are bad, but the cell phones are worse, because they don't see any problem sending text messages to kids, and if the kid sends a message back then they are signed up for monthly recurring charges, even though they are underage and can't enter into a contract. I think it should be illegal for a third party to bill through the phone company , whether land based or cell based.

Why not the death penalty?

[wytcld]

When someone commits theft on this level, why not kill him? In some states we have "three strikes, you're out" laws, with a lifetime in jail for the third crime. This guy committed literally millions of crimes. To keep things in proportion, he should be killed. That's presuming he's guilty beyond reasonable doubt, of course.

Now, you could say the "three strikes" thing is three convictions, not three crimes. But there's nothing to stop the prosecutors from prosecuting each crime singly. Get to the third conviction, jail him for life; get to the Xth, kill him. Simple. Fair. Proportional.

Re:Why not the death penalty?

[geekoid]

First off, nobody gets killed for fraud, not should they.
Second, there is no reason to spend more money locking him up for this on convictions.
Third, it's three convictions, not crimes.
Forth, no individual crime is worth prosecuting them individually.

"Simple. Fair. Proportional."
It's none of those.

Re:Why not the death penalty?

[Bastard of Subhumani]

First off, nobody gets killed for fraud, not should they.

True, we need to keep a sense of proportion here. How about a strike with a split bamboo cane? Per victim, of course.

Insightful?

[HornWumpus]

I know lots of human beings, including me, that have at one time or another worked crappy jobs with no more then $20 in the bank at the end of the month.

So can this scumbag. For the rest of his life. Losing most of his paltry check to garnishment every pay period. Hopefully he can find a nice refrigerator box to live in for all I care.

Let him suck it up. He's lucky he's not in 'pound him in the ass prison'. He would be if I were in charge. The prisoners families get financially raped every time they make a collect call out. They'd love this pig fucker on the yard.

"... directed a massive unauthorized billing scam"

[slashdotlurker]

You mean to tell me that there are authorized billing scams ? I get it, that must be my monthly cellphone bill.

Wrong prespective

[geekoid]

What he got was fine for the crime. Basically fines of all the money, not allowed to work in the industry.
Punishment fits the crime, and taxes don't go into keeping him in prison.

The problem is that smoking a joint laws are too tough.

Re:Wrong prespective

[nexuspal]

The punishment surely does not fit the crime. No jail time? This is absurd, and absurd you would support this obvious miscarriage of justice due to appearant cronyism. The hurt caused by this mans actions far exceed whatever value he had to society. He should get 10 years minimum...

Re:Wrong prespective

[nexuspal]

It's called the Punishment part of our legal system. It helps society because it shows that if you hurt x number of people, you will be hurt back proportionally, not just fined for 2 percent of what you stole. Sentences like this make me want to rip people off as well, because the consequences of getting caught are low, and if caught, the punishment will be nill. Punishment is meant to deter this from happening again, and absense of punishment will just add fuel to the fire. Hope that answered your question.

Great, who's next?

[TClevenger]

Now can we go after the scumbags that charge eight bucks a minute for collect calls without warning about it?