TulipTools Internet Business Owners and Online Sellers Community

Go back 1 1/2 years: remember a site named BadCustomer.com that advertised on PSU and was written up in numerous ecommerce magazines and blogs (like this article: http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articl...d-Business and this article written by Ecommerce-Guide.com's Vangie Beal http://www.ecommerce-guide.com/article.p...ebacks.htm). The site claimed it could help reduce merchant chargebacks and amassed a database of 6 million "bad customers" who had filed chargebacks (and the site also charged consumers $99 to have their names removed from its blacklist.)

Guess what? Their website is now offline and they've been busted. A large percentage of those 6 million names were their own customers who had filed 100's of thousands of chargebacks against their numerous (51 to be exact) 'get rich quick' shell companies and websites.

http://getoutofdebt.org/24639/wait-for-i...old-you-so

and a page full on the FTC website:
http://ftcsearch.ftc.gov/search?q=badcustomer.com&btnG=Search&output=xml_no_dtd&ie=UTF-8&client=ftc_consumer&proxystylesheet=ftc_consumer&filter=0
and a page full of court documents already:
http://www.ftc.gov/os/caselist/1023015/index.shtm

edited to add: they made $275 million before getting busted...

FTC news release Wrote:At the request of the Federal Trade Commission, a federal court has frozen the assets of corporations and an individual behind a far-reaching Internet enterprise that allegedly made more than $275 million by luring consumers into deceptive “trial” memberships, and bogus government-grant and money-making schemes.

edit 2: 500,000 chargebacks totaling $75 MILLION (gasp) may have been the motivation for starting badcustomer.com

Salt Lake Tribune Wrote:Since 2006, Johnson’s companies took in more than $350 million from sales, but returned about $75 million to customers who complained to their credit or debit card companies, while keeping more than $275 million, according to court records

Quote:About 500,000 consumers — an "astronomical" number according to the FTC — asked for refunds. When customers sought these so-called charge backs, the agency said, they were told they could be placed on a list of bad consumers on BadCustomer.com"

http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/home/510885...s.html.csp

That's a convoluted mess. I don't think it's legal in the US, unless it's related to a legal action, to make public the names of customer who owe debt. It'll be interesting to see how this translates online.