FTC: Phone Card Scam Leads to $2.3M Settlement

Marketers of calling cards that duped tens of thousands of consumers are going to pay $2.3 million in a settlement with the government.

The Federal Trade Commission says the marketers bilked people out of millions of dollars by advertising prepaid phone cards that didn't provide as many calling minutes as promised.

The settlement with New Jersey-based Millennium Telecard, Inc., and several other outfits all owned by the same man -- Fadi Salim -- is the biggest of its kind in the prepaid calling-card industry.

The FTC says immigrants wanting to call loved ones back home were targeted, but the cards were loaded with hidden fees that chewed up many of the promised minutes.

The commission's testing found the cards delivered an average of only 45 percent of the advertised minutes.

(Copyright 2012 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)