FTC Sends $7.4 M Worth of Refund Checks to Victims of Platinum Credit Card Scheme

On January 16, 2013, the Federal Trade Commission mailed 70,511 refund checks to consumers who lost money to a scheme that allegedly sold bogus “platinum” credit cards and illegally debited consumers’ bank accounts. Last year, as part of the agency's ongoing crackdown on schemes targeting financially strapped consumers, the FTC sought to permanently stop the illegal practices of a telemarketing operation and make the defendants pay refunds to consumers. Under a settlement entered by the court in September 2012, Blake Rubin, Chase Rubin, and Justin Diaczuk, who ran the Platinum Trust Card and Express Platinum Card scam, were permanently banned from telemarketing and from selling any type of credit card product or service. The Philadelphia-based telemarketing marketing scheme peddled bogus platinum credit cards to online payday loan applicants which were called and offered a credit card with credit limits of up to $9,500 in exchange for $99 in advance and a monthly $19 fee. If you would like to read more about this case and others, visit our Case Studies Library.