http://courts.phila.gov/pdf/cpcvcomprg/goInternet-pos-II-opinion1.pdf
IN THE COURT OF COMMON PLEAS OF PHILADELPHIA COUNTY
FIRST JUDICIAL DISTRICT OF PENNSYLVANIA
CIVIL TRIAL DIVISION
GOINTERNET.NET, INC. et al.,
: MARCH TERM, 2003
Plaintiffs,
:
: No. 3348
v.
:
: Commerce Program
SBC COMMUNICATIONS, INC., et al., :
Defendants.
: Control No. 090038
O R D E R
AND NOW, this 17th day of December, 2003, upon consideration of the Preliminary Objections of defendant, SBC Communications, Inc., to the Amended Complaint, the response in opposition, the respective memoranda, all other matters of record, and in accord with the contemporaneous Opinion, it is ORDERED that said Preliminary Objections are Sustained as follows:
1) Counts I, II, IV, V, and VIII of plaintiffs’ Amended Complaint are dismissed because this court lacks personal jurisdiction over SBC Communications, Inc. with respect to those claims;
2) Count III (breach of contract) and the negligent misrepresentation claim in Count VI are dismissed for failure to state a claim upon which relief can be
granted.
More at PDF
I wonder how much money hillary got from these guys...
Apparently, after getting flimsy consent from some hapless person who answered a phone call and agreed to look at a "custom prepared web site just for that business", they charged that victim via their phone bill. This seems a tad strange to me, that anyone could tap my money via my phone bill without my informed consent. Oh well.
By Joris Evers, IDG News Service
AUGUST 13, 2003
ComputerWorld
The U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has filed suit against a company that the agency charges is hawking Web presence over the phone and then charging its targets on their phone bill without their authorization.
The company, Mercury Marketing, now doing business as GoInternet.net, based in Philadelphia, calls small businesses, offers a Web page or an advertisement on the Internet and tells them they are legally obligated to pay for the services, the FTC said in a statement yesterday. Charges of $29.95 per month appear on customers' phone bills, according to the FTC.
They call businesses and get someone to agree to a 15-day trial offer to look at a Web site they designed for that business. Many times, unbeknownst to that business, the look at the site results in a $29.95 addition to the monthly telephone bill, FTC investigator Dave Plottner said.
The charges on the phone bill often show up as MIS Int Serv, which people often mistake for Internet access charges, Plottner said.
The alleged scam has been going on since the late 1990s and targets businesses all across the U.S. The FTC has received over 850 complaints about Mercury and its various operating names, Plottner said. In a survey of 417 customers randomly pulled from a customer list obtained from Mercury, the FTC found only one person who said he had agreed to hire Mercury to develop and maintain a Web page, he said.
In the suit, filed in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, the FTC has asked the court for a hearing and an order to halt the illegal billing practices and freeze GoInternet.net's assets pending a ruling on the charges, according to the FTC statement. The suit also names GoInternet.net CEO Neal Saferstein.
Saferstein and GoInternet.net under its previous name Mercury Marketing settled similar charges with the FTC in March 2001. The agency charges that Saferstein and his company are violating that settlement and that the scam has not only continued, but worsened.
The defendants are engaged in a systematic and widespread effort to defraud consumers, the FTC said.
Mercury has already been sued for unauthorized billing by the attorneys general of North Carolina, Illinois, Arkansas and Michigan and by the Montana Public Utilities Commission, an FTC spokeswoman said.
The alleged scam by Mercury isn't unique. Other companies use telemarketers to sell listings in online business directories and Web pages, among other services, and charge their unwitting targets via the telephone bill.
Besides GoInternet.net, Mercury Marketing also operates and bills under the names Mercury Internet Services, Mercury Communications, MIS, Mercury Internet Services Wireless, Venus Voice Mail and Mercury Technologies, the FTC said.
GoInternet.net didn't return calls seeking comment.