FTC acts to stop scam raiding seniors' accounts

A federal court judge has issued a temporary order halting a scam by the defendants who targeted and called senior citizens, lied to them to get their bank account information, and used this information to withdraw money from their bank accounts. The FTC alleges that the defendants' conduct violated the FTC Act and the FTC's Telemarketing Sales Rule, and that the telemarketing scheme drew in over $20 million between May 2011 and December 2013. The defendants used a telemarketing boiler room in Canada to cold-call seniors claiming to sell fraud protection, legal protection, and pharmaceutical benefit services.