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The owners and operators of a vast payday lending scheme that overcharged consumers millions of dollars will be permanently banned from the lending industry under the terms of a settlement with the Federal Trade Commission. The settlement also provides that nearly all outstanding debt made up entirely of illegal finance charges held by the company will be deemed as paid in full.
The scheme, which was operated online under the names Harvest Moon Financial, Gentle Breeze Online, and Green Stream Lending, used deceptive marketing to convince consumers that their loans would be repaid in a fixed number of payments. The FTC’s complaint alleged that the company instead continued to draw millions of dollars in payments from consumers’ bank accounts long after the loans’ original principal amount and stated repayment cost had been repaid, and would do so until consumers completely closed their bank accounts or found some other way to cut off payments.
By DAVID LAZARUS | Los Angeles Times | Published: February 9, 2021
Stars and Stripes is making stories on the coronavirus pandemic available free of charge. See other free reports here. Sign up for our daily coronavirus newsletter here. Please support our journalism with a subscription. It s been clear for months that the COVID-19 pandemic has been a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for scammers, con artists and assorted slimeballs looking to cash in on this most miserable of moments in our lives. Now the Federal Trade Commission is out with a scorecard showing how badly consumers were bruised last year. It s not pretty. Among the lowlights: