OC Telemarketer Ordered To Pay $1.4M To Victims It Cheated

COSTA MESA, CA — A Costa Mesa-based telemarketing company has been ordered to pay a $1.4 million judgment for cheating about 50 victims who lost money on investments, the state Attorney General's Office announced Monday.

The victims, many of them seniors, lost about $250,000 in illegal advance fees for "investment recovery" services, the Attorney General's Office reported. The judgment in Orange County Superior Court was issued June 26.

Telemarketers promised the investors help recovering money lost in fraudulent investment schemes or timeshares, prosecutors said.

"The California Department of Justice is committed to protecting consumers from unscrupulous operators who prey on the most vulnerable," Attorney General Xavier Becerra said. "In this case, these con artists not only targeted the elderly, they doubled down to cheat Californians who had already been the victims of financial fraud."

—City News Service