Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced this week that they secured court orders permanently banning the operators of an alleged credit-card-interest-rate-reduction scam from working in the debt-relief industry.
The defendants—Gino de Paz, Grace de Paz and Shabana Khublal—allegedly engaged in abusive and deceptive practices violating the FTC Act, the Telemarketing Sales Rule and the Florida Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act in selling credit-card-interest-rate-reduction services to consumers throughout the United States, including Florida seniors.
“These scammers lured victims—financially-distressed consumers, along with seniors—into signing up for their debt-relief scheme. Instead of receiving the promised relief, victims were brought down further into debt while the defendants made millions. Now, working with the FTC, we stopped the defendants from bombarding consumers in Florida with deceptive telemarketing calls promising financial relief, and they will be forced to pay,” Moody said.
FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection Director Samuel Levine said, “The defendants in this case were taking advantage of Americans dealing with rising debt by falsely promising to permanently reduce their credit card interest rates. The FTC is proud to partner with the Florida Attorney General to stop these scams.”
In a complaint filed in July 2020, Moody’s office…
