Washington State's Attorney General announced settlement of claims of unfair and deceptive practices by Intelius, an online seller of personal information. Intelius agreed to pay $1.3 million to resolve claims that it, basically, tricked people into signing up for a $20 per month service after consumers purchased the information they intended to buy but before they could complete the online checkout.
Attorney General Robert McKenna described the process as an "online labyrinth" designed to confuse and trap people. Although it took seconds sign up for the program, the company made cancelling a maddening process of long telephone waits and ignoring requests..
The 40-page legal complaint details the scheme and the sections of Washington law upon which the Attorney General proceeded. Oregon has similar consumer protection laws.
Too often, companies get away with tricking people out of $40 dollars here and $80 dollars there because people figure it is not worth their time to fight. When companies do this to thousands and thousands of people, then they can make millions of dollars. Here, Intelius got $62 million dollars from the program. In these situations where a little money is obtained from thousands of people, it takes Attorneys General and private lawyers to enforce the civil law.
Yes, we "trial lawyers" are the targets of Republican Politicians and comedians. But without us, there would be very few "cops" protecting consumers from alleged crooks.
Jeff Merrick, Oregon Trial Attorney
503-665-4234
