Fool me once shame on you, Fool me twice shame on me….or not.
I wonder what the merchant application claimed that BRS was selling? Brian Hessler certainly knew of hundreds of scammers who potentially had caused chargebacks, and he had/has an interesting website at http://www.businessrecoveryservices.net/AVAILABLE_KITS.html.
Maybe hitting the victims again seemed like a good business plan at the time. Perhaps more due diligence would have provided better underwriting insight.
March 1, 2011
UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
DISTRICT OF ARIZONA
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,
Plaintiff,
v.
BUSINESS RECOVERY SERVICES, LLC
a limited liability company, and,
BRIAN HESSLER
individually, and as owner, officer,
or manager of Business Recovery
Services, LLC,
Says BRS: We know you have been scammed since we buy lists of dummies from other scammers.
“Our mission is simple . . . to recover every last penny for each and every Business Recovery Services, LLC client who has spent his or her hard-earned money on the many ill-fated home-based businesses available in the market, whether or not the home-based businesses are operational today.”
Says the FTC
“During inbound and outbound calls with consumers, Defendants’ telemarketers represent that, if the consumers purchase and use a do-it-yourself recovery kit from BRS, the consumers will recover or are highly likely to recover a substantial portion of monies that the consumers previously paid to third-party business opportunity and work-at-home ventures.
In numerous instances, the monies that consumers seek to recover were paid in the context of a telemarketing transaction.
Defendants market and sell hundreds of variations of their kits, with each variation directed to consumer victims of a particular business opportunity or work-at-home venture.
Some of Defendants’ kits are directed to consumer victims of business opportunity or work at-home ventures that are defunct or otherwise unable to return funds to consumers.
Defendants charge between $99 to $499 for each of their kits, which include complaint letters and related materials.
When a consumer agrees to the purchase of one or more of Defendants’ kits, Defendants do not wait until seven (7) business days after the consumer has successfully recovered funds to charge or bill the consumer for the kit(s). Instead, Defendants immediately charge or bill the consumer for the kit(s). In numerous instances, Defendants have charged or billed consumers for kits despite that the consumers did not recover any funds.
In numerous instances, consumers who buy and use Defendants’ kits are unable to recover funds.”
Comment: duh