WASHINGTON, Nov. 14 (UPI) -- The Federal Trade Commission has announced a settlement with two psychic advice companies who use the purported psychic Miss Cleo as their symbol, forbidding them from collecting outstanding bills totaling $500 million.
Access Resource Services, Inc., and Psychic Readers Network, Inc., both of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., had allegedly made an estimated $1 billion off what the FTC considers a fraud and now has to give up the half of the profit that has not been paid by consumers.
Customers were promised free advice and predictions of the future when they were actually directed to a 900 number that charged about $5 a minute, the FTC said.
The two companies signed an agreement stopping all collection efforts on accounts or claims from customers nationwide. That totals an estimated $500 million in outstanding charges.
The FTC alleged that the defendants engaged in deceptive advertising, billing and collection practices.
"The lesson in this case is that companies that make a promise in an ad need to deliver on it, whether it's about availability, performance or cost," said J. Howard Beales III, director of the FTC's Bureau of protection.
"I'm no psychic, but I can foresee this -- if you make deceptive claims, there is FTC action in your future," Beales said.
The FTC said the Miss Cleo psychic lines also failed to disclose the cost of the calls in their advertisement for psychic services and by threatening consumers with bad credit reports.
The settlement prohibits the defendants from misrepresenting any fact in connection with the sale of services and it bans them from calling consumers without giving them a way to stop the calls.
Miss Cleo, whose real name is Youree Dell Harris, also faces civil action brought by the federal government. Although she has claimed to be Jamaican, records show she was born in Los Angeles.
