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FTC’s AmeriDebt Lawsuit Resolved: Almost $13 Million Returned to 287,000 Consumers Harmed by Debt Management Scam

The Federal Trade Commission announced today that the agency returned approximately $12.7 million to consumers this week from a settlement with Andris Pukke and his companies, AmeriDebt, Inc. and DebtWorks, Inc. This consumer redress concludes the largest credit counseling/debt management deception case brought by the FTC. In addition, more than $7 million will be returned to consumers as a result of class-action settlements with the defendants and related credit counseling agencies.

Using the defendants’ records, about 287,000 AmeriDebt consumers have been mailed redress checks. The FTC and individual consumers alleged that AmeriDebt, DebtWorks, and related credit counseling agencies engaged in deceptive practices in promoting and offering credit counseling and debt management plans (DMPs). More...
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  1. AnonymousSeptember 16, 2008 at 12:49 PM

    Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "FTC’s AmeriDebt Lawsuit Resolved: Almost $13 Milli...":

    so this check isn't going to bounce? if it does i'm going to be even more p.od at Mr. Pukke.





    Posted by Anonymous to NEW YORK PARALEGAL BLOG at September 16, 2008 10:31 AM

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  2. AnonymousFebruary 14, 2009 at 3:24 PM

    My wife was pretty much taken to the cleaners with Ameridebt, this before we met. She recieved a whopping $170.00. WHAT A JOKE!!!

    ReplyDelete
  3. UnknownJanuary 4, 2011 at 12:29 PM

    I am trying to find out if I was including in this class action and also how do I locate my old records that were handled by Ameridebt as now one of the creditors has filed a judgment against me from a card from 1997, RIGHT..

    ReplyDelete
  4. AnonymousOctober 19, 2011 at 7:21 PM

    Hello, I was duped by Ameridebt. They said they would help me and then asked for over $1600.00 up front and a monthly fee to "settle my debts" and get me one low monthy fee so I could get out of debt. I said, "I can't affort to give you those fees. The "counselor" said he would help me anyway but I needed "to give some type of fee to cover there expenses in helping me". so, I sent them $400.00. I was told to not pay any of my creditors for 3 months and then things would start to "get better". Meaning no more calls from creditors and no more fees. After 6 mos., I was still getting calls and more fees, increasing my debt. After about a year of sending my monthly payments, I decided I would be better off without them and stopped sending the monthly fees. I then dealed directly with the creditors to pay off my debts (Thankfully, I have now done that). But, my credit report states that I "defaulted" on my contract with Ameridebt and it caused my credit score to fall to 250. This experience, when I trusted them to help me, has caused me deep depression and great stress. But, I have not received any compensation check. Is this a scam too?

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