Victims of phone directory scam reimbursed

Almost 200 U.S. businesses and nonprofit organizations will receive refunds after a Federal Trade Commission (FTC) investigation of several Canadian businesses that fraudulently marketed business directory listings, according to the FTC. Doing business as the Official Yellow Pages, GoAm Media and other entities, Stephane LaChapelle, Karl Garon and Claude Berthiaume led small businesses and nonprofits to believe that they had a pre-existing agreement to buy a listing. The FTC is mailing out 188 checks totalling $19,000 to victims. In May, Whistleblower described how a number of Canadian companies used deceptive marketing practices to drum up yellow page advertising in the United States.