An Arizona company that transfers money electronically between banks and companies has agreed to pay over 43-thousand dollars to 149 Iowans who were swindled by a Canadian telemarketer.
But Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller is worried Teledraft will continue to do business with fraudulent telemarketers. “We’re concerned about what they might do based on their past practices,” Miller says. “We’re going to watch them very closely.” Helen Parker of Des Moines, a retired school teacher, had nearly five-hundred dollars withdrawn from her checking account, without her consent, in the scheme.
She has stern words for TeleDraft.”I’m very disappointed that a corporation in good-standing would allow such cases to happen to unsuspecting people (who) do not trade with telemarketers,” Parker says. The state sued Teledraft, and a federal judge today (Friday) ordered Teledraft to pay the Iowans who had money withdrawn from their accounts for two Canadian companies that engaged in telemarketing fraud.
Again, Miller is skeptical that Teledraft will refuse business from telemarketing scams. “They weren’t the best corporate citizen in dealing with these matters, in dealing with these companies, so we’re watching them,” Miller says. Miller says there’s no way, today, for the state to go after the Canadian firms that committed the fraud. He’s focusing on getting U.S. credit card companies, banks, Western Union and now companies like Teledraft that do electronic money transfers to quit doing business with these suspect Canadian companies. “This is a continuing effort to try and deal with the payment infrastructure that telemarketing fraud operators from outside the country use to get ill-gotten money from Iowans and Americans,” Miller says.