August 23, 2007 – (HOSTSEARCH.COM) – The U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has banned The Results Group, a Phoenix-based 'boiler room' company that sold website and web hosting services, from making further telephone sales, it was reported recently. The company will also be forced to return $435,000 to its customers.
According to the FTC, The Results Group sold websites that they claimed were affiliated with online retailers such as Amazon.com and Overstock.com. They also claimed these sites would pay commissions for sales made through the websites they sold. Customers were charged between $99 and $599 to build and host a site, and also told online adverts would drive “tens of thousands” of potential customers to business. However, after purchasing a site, customers were contacted by "Business Coaches" who tried to persuade them to purchase additional advertising to make their business successful.
The FTC concluded The Results Group had misrepresented the potential income available from their websites. Its settlement order included a $19.5 million judgment suspended based on the sworn financial statements of the three defendants in the case. The judgment is due should the defendants have misrepresented their financial status or fail to make the payments to their customers.
