Paul Price, Consumer Fraud, Illinois 2014

Canadian Man Sentenced For Consumer Fraud Scheme

Paul Price, 57, of Toronto, Canada, was sentenced to ten years in federal prison for his role in an advanced fee credit card scam that defrauded tens of thousands of U.S. consumers of over $10 million.

The scam operated by Price and his ex-wife, Elissa Wells, 50, of Toronto, Canada, made 'cold' calls to U.S. residents with credit problems, representing that their companies could provide Visa or MasterCards for an advanced fee of several hundred dollars.

However, neither Price nor Wells, nor any of the companies they operated, had any business relationship with Visa or MasterCard and were not in any way authorized by either to issue or market credit cards.

Consumers received nothing of value for the several hundred dollars that the scam companies took from their bank accounts through electronic debits.

The scheme operated from August 1999 until November 2004, when their offices were raided by members of various Canadian law enforcement agencies.

Price and Wells were recently extradited to the United States from Canada after the conclusion of legal proceedings there.

Wells received a 55-month sentence on October 21, 2013, for her role in the offense.

The scam was one of five major advanced fee credit card schemes prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Illinois between 2003 and 2008.

The five scams prosecuted by this office represented over 600,000 victims with total losses exceeding $120 million dollars.

According to a study done at the behest of the Federal Trade Commission in 2004, approximately 4 1/2 million U.S. consumers, about 2.1 percent of the U.S. adult population, had been the victim of an advanced fee credit card or advanced fee loan scam.

Prior to this case, the Prices' scam was one of the most notorious, with a single related scam company in Toronto operating five boiler rooms with 250 telemarketers on the phone simultaneously collecting tens of millions of dollars of advanced fees from U.S. consumers seeking a credit card, yet failing to provide even a single consumer with a single credit card.

Eleven individuals were indicted for mail and wire fraud, nine pleaded guilty and received federal prison sentences ranging from 4 1/2 years to twenty years, two went to trial and after being convicted by a jury received sentences of 23 and 29 years respectively.

Source: https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdil/pr/canadian-man-sentenced-consumer-fraud