FTC Bans Fair Guide Scammers, Gets $9m Judgment

Earlier this month, the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) announced that U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division banned Slovakia-based scammers from selling online directory and directory listings. The group operated under the name Construct Data Publishers, also known as Fair Guide, Wolfgang Valvoda, and Susanne Anhorn. It is the latest in a series of actions against the defendants, and includes a $9 million judgment against them. The FTC initially brought charges against the defendants in March of 2013. The complaint alleged that the operation targeted small businesses and non-profits, tricking them into paying millions of dollars to be listed in an online directory they did not want to be listed in, and for which they did not realize they would be charged. At the time, the court issued a temporary restraining order followed by a preliminary injunction prohibiting the fraud and freezing the defendants’ assets pending litigation. Before Construct Data moved their operation from Austria to Slovakia, they were charged in courts in both Germany and Italy for deceptive practices. They agreed to stop their deceptive solicitations in Europe in 2007 when they reached a settlement in a case filed by an Austrian trade association.