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January 14, 1999
Web posted at: 11:34 a.m. EST (1634 GMT)

by Tom Diederich

INTERACTIVE:

Have you ever been a victim of a Internet related scam? Yes No View Results

(IDG) -- Three Californians and eight companies listed under their names face government charges of billing credit-card holders -- some of whom didn't even own computers -- for unordered or fictitious Internet-related services, the Federal Trade Commission said Tuesday.

The defendants allegedly obtained consumer credit- and debit-card account numbers without permission and then billed consumers for bogus services, the FTC said in a statement. When victims called an 800 number that appeared on the bills to question the charges, they were greeted either with a busy signal, no answer at all or a recording that told them to enter their credit card number for confirmation, the agency added.

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Many victims were billed repeatedly over several months and had to cancel their accounts when their credit-card companies told them that it would be impossible to block future charges from any of the defendants' companies, the agency said.

In its complaint to a U.S. District Court, the FTC named Kenneth H. Taves (a.k.a. Kenneth Till), Teresa Callei Taves, Gary Mittman, and their companies, J.K. Publications Inc., MJD Service Corp., and Net Options Inc. The complaint alleges that the defendants also use the business names Netfill, -Bill, Webtel and Online Billing.

The FTC is asking the court to block the illegal billing activity and to award compensation to victims of the scams.