United States - FTC Halts Elusive Cross-Border Business Opportunity Scheme

At FTC request, a federal court has temporarily halted a $6 million fraudulent cross-border business opportunity scheme that targeted U.S. and Canadian consumers. The complaint alleges that the fraudsters falsely promised that consumers could earn up to $3000 per month referring merchants in their area to the defendants’ non-existent money-lending service. Consumers paid from $299 to $499 to buy the business opportunity, and many were also scammed for bogus business leads of “high quality” or “pre-approved” merchant customers, often to the tune of $10,000 or more. The fraudsters attempted to elude detection by law enforcement by changing names, and office locations, using among other names, “Money Now Funding” and “Cash4Businesses.” The court temporarily froze the defendants’ assets and appointed a receiver to take control of the operation, pending litigation. The court subsequently entered preliminary injunctions against eight companies and 18 of 20 individual defendants. The FTC seeks to permanently shut down the operation and return money to consumers.