Thursday, April 4, 1996 | 11:59 a.m.
CARSON CITY -- Sixty out-of-state residents, victims of a Las Vegas-based telefunding scheme, are sharing in a $103,452 refund.
Attorney General Frankie Sue Del Papa said Wednesday this is the largest recovery ever and that it sends a clear message to those involved in illegal telemarketing.
After the state received about 14 complaints, Deputy Attorney General Shelley Lubritz filed a civil suit in August 1994 against the American Freedom Association, accusing it of violating the deceptive trade practices act.
Lubritz also said the state seized the $104,000 bank account of the association, which is now out of business. In a final settlement of the suit, the state was able to pay off the victims who lost anywhere from $519 to $20,000.
The victims, she said, typically live outside Nevada but "we need to go after them (the telemarketers) because they are a blight on our state."
American Freedom Association was hired by the Prisoners of War Freedom Foundation to raise money through telephone solicitations. The Prisoners of War Foundation was to get 10 percent and the telefunder was to keep 90 percent.
In their telephone calls, American Freedom Association told consumers they had won $50,000 in cash and that the association was a government sponsored group that recovered money the consumer had previously lost to other telemarketers.
But before they could get the prize or recover past losses, they had to send in money payable to the prisoners-of-war group.
Lubritz said it operated only a few weeks. "We nipped it in the bud," she said.
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