FTC v. Audiotex Connection

Citation
'''Federal Trade Comm'n v. Audiotex Connection, Inc. (E.D.N.Y. Feb. 19, 1997) (complaint).

Overview
According to the complaint, consumers who visited defendants’ adult "entertainment" Internet sites first had to download what the defendants termed a special "viewer" program called "david.exe." Before allowing consumers to visit a site, this program disconnected their computers from their own local Internet service providers and reconnected the computers to a phone number in Moldova, all without consumers’ knowledge because the software program turned off their modem speakers so they could not hear the disconnect or the dialing of the international number.

The FTC also alleged that the program did not disconnect from the international number until consumers turned off their computers. Thus, consumers who visited the defendants’ web sites, but then left them to visit other web sites or to turn to other computer activities such as word-processing, continued to rack up international calling charges of more than $2 per minute. Thousands of consumers have incurred hundreds of thousands of dollars in international long distance charges as a result of the scam.

Trial Court Proceedings
The FTC obtained full redress of $2.1 million for over 25,000 consumers.