Who We Are What We Do Resources | | For immediate release -- Monday, May 19, 2008.
Contact Bill Brauch -- 515-281-8772 A.G. Alleges Telemarketing Fraud
by “Galaxy Member Benefits” Attorney General Tom Miller filed a consumer fraud lawsuit Monday alleging consumer fraud by a Florida-based operation doing business as Galaxy Member Benefits.
Miller said: “We allege Galaxy’s telemarketers called Iowans and used deception to entangle them in unwanted memberships, and in some cases made unauthorized credit card charges or withdrawals from consumers’ bank accounts. Galaxy sometimes charged consumers without any knowledge or approval by the consumer and in amounts approaching $300.” According to the lawsuit, Galaxy telemarketers got the attention of some consumers by claiming to offer $100 worth of free gas. Other Iowans reported that their first contact with Galaxy involved a telemarketing call offering a so-called government grant for thousands of dollars. Such calls were followed by unauthorized charges to consumers’ bank accounts and credit cards. Some unauthorized charges were recurring, and some charges were about $300. “Instead of getting a substantial government grant deposited in their account, as they were promised, some consumers discovered hundreds of dollars were taken from their bank account without authorization,” Miller said.
Defendants in the lawsuit, which was filed Monday in Polk County District Court, are Galaxy Gadgets and Gizmos LLC of Palm Harbor, Florida, doing business as Galaxy Member Benefits, and John E. Bartholomew, Jr., whom the AG believes is responsible for the alleged violations. The suit alleges the defendants marketed membership programs to Iowa consumers through telemarketing and by mail, but failed to provide consumers the protections and disclosures required by Iowa law – including written contracts and written notices of cancellation rights. “We allege the defendants ignored these basic requirements,” Miller said. | |
http://www.state.ia.us/government/ag/latest_news/releases/may_2008/Galaxy.html
Attorney General Tom Miller Biography
Tom Miller is serving in his seventh four-year term as Attorney General of Iowa.
He was born August 11, 1944, in Dubuque, Iowa, the son of the late Elmer and Betty Miller. Tom grew up in Dubuque, where his father was the longtime county assessor and an inspiration for Tom's early interest in public service. Tom graduated from Wahlert High School in 1962 and Loras College in 1966, and he received his law degree from Harvard Law School in 1969.
After law school, Tom served as a VISTA volunteer in Baltimore, Maryland,for two years, and then as legislative assistant to U.S. (more here: http://www.state.ia.us/government/ag/tom_miller/index.html
& in other leading headway water edges (so2speak);
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/05/19/david-mccullough-urgers-b_n_102514.html
NEWTON, Mass. — Pulitzer Prize winning author David McCullough has a suggestion for what young people can do for their country.
"Please, please do what you can to cure the verbal virus that seems increasingly rampant among your generation," McCullough implored Boston College's class of 2008 at commencement ceremonies Monday.
He said he's particularly troubled by the "relentless, wearisome use of words" such as like, awesome and actually.
"Just imagine if in his inaugural address John F. Kennedy had said, 'Ask not what your country can, you know, do for you, but what you can, like, do for your country actually," he said.
Graduates apparently thought his speech was, like, awesome. They gave him a standing ovation.
& on...http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/phoenix/main/index.html
