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Miss Cleo Busted in Missouri
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Posted by: laborat
TV psychic gets $75,000 penalty
Court fines owner of Miss Cleo’s hot line.
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JEFFERSON CITY (AP) - A Florida-based company that owns a television psychic hot line has been ordered to pay a $75,000 fine for violating Missouri’s no-call law, attorney general Jay Nixon said yesterday.
The St. Louis City Circuit Court ordered late Tuesday the payment against Access Resources Services Inc., the Fort Lauderdale company best-known for promoting Miss Cleo’s tarot psychic reading.
"This order makes it clear that you can’t violate the no-call law without repercussions," Nixon said. "Thanks to the Missouri consumers who are part of the no-call team and are letting us know when they’re called by telemarketers, we’re sending a strong message that violators will be pursued."
Speaking with a Caribbean accent, Miss Cleo appears in television commercials promising insights into love, money and personal matters.
A lawsuit against the company - one of two filed by Nixon last month - alleged 94 violations of the state’s no-call law, which allows Missouri residents to sign up on a list that bars telemarketers from calling them. The company faced fines of up to $5,000 per violation if found liable for calling people who requested privacy.
Under the order, the company will obtain a copy of the state’s no-call list and direct employees not to call those numbers. More than 800,000 phone numbers are on the list.
Joel Dichter, a New York City-based attorney representing Access on the no-call lawsuit, said the settlement was a practical decision.
"It was a business matter, to get this behind us and get this resolved even though it is our position there was no violation of the law," he said.
The other lawsuit filed in Jackson County claims the company committed fraud by billing Missourians for supposedly free services and that the company misrepresented reduced rates and waiver fees.
For example, customers spent three minutes on the phone providing information including a name, address and phone number then were charged for time spent on hold waiting to speak with a psychic.
Missouri residents who never requested the service, including deceased people, have received bills for Miss Cleo’s services, the lawsuit claims.
Posted by: LT
They aren't that upset about this, obviously. They saw it coming.
Posted by: redwench
ohio is investigating them too. for the charging fees.
i think a few other states also. so they are probably happy to get out without paying anything.
Posted by: Setsuna
I never did like Miss Cleo. Im glad they are getting busted!
Posted by: Kull
What a crock!
I can't stand her stupid commercials anymore. They show too damn many of them down here.
Posted by: Null Actor
Horrible. I hate television advertising. Commercials, whatever. But shit like this is so much more annoying.
Anything with "Call now" should be banned from television.
Posted by: Ion Silverbolt
I find the guy with question marks all over his jacket the most annoying..
Posted by: Setsuna
Isnt that the guy who sell's a book teaching you how to make $1,000,000 20,000 ways?
Posted by: Swilo
Matthew Lesko.
Posted by: Homer
Agreed with Ion  When i first saw that commercial, i thought it was some kind of a farce. He was just too, um... over energetic about his unrealistic claim.
I still can't believe they put that on television.
Posted by: Chako
Now I have seen him once (I don't watch much TV, and when I do, I switch channels when commercials come on). Just goes to show you what if you have money to pay for a spot, the TV stations will open their doors wide and give you some air time.
Posted by: Shalome
The pathetic part of Matthew Lesko's commercials is that all the information in his book can be found elsewhere.. for free. If you want to go back to school, the financial aid department at the college of your choice will find you the same government grants and loans Matthew Lesko promises, only they'll do it free of charge. Federal loans for small business startups are easy to find too.
You can ALWAYS get government money for things.. if you are good at writing grant proposals.
And anyway, yeah, like I wanna be taking financial advice from an annoying screaming guy with bad hair who is wearing a Joker suit and prancing around on late-night TV.
-Shalome
Posted by: Ion Silverbolt
I think it was the Riddler that had that suit.
And this guy is more annoying than Jim Carry.
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