NC Settles With Alleged Credit Card Fraudster

North Carolina has settled with an Arizona telemarketer that allegedly sold state residents credit cards they never received, according to Attorney General Roy Cooper.

Named as defendants were Premier, which also does business as Premier Savings and Premier Savings Consultant, and its president Eric C. Syntax of Scottsdale, AZ. They also agreed to stop making illegal telemarketing calls to state residents and to pay $30,000 for consumer education and enforcement efforts, according to Cooper.

Under a judgment approved by Wake County Superior Court Judge Ripley Rand, consumers who paid Premier Nationwide Corp. an upfront fee to get a credit card or help improve their credit have until the end of the year to seek a full refund, according to Cooper.

Cooper alleged that Premier deceived consumers across the state with its marketing of credit cards and
debt consolidation services. The company also allegedly violated state law by making unsolicited telemarketing calls to
North Carolinians who had placed their telephone numbers on the National Do Not Call Registry.

Specifically, Cooper charged that Premier contacted North Carolina consumers through mailings and telemarketing calls to pitch them pre-approved credit cards with credit lines as high as $50,000 for an upfront fee.

In reality, very few consumers were able to get credit cards through Premier. Consumers who got
telemarketing calls from the company were asked to provide a debit or credit card number to pay a processing
fee of approximately $379, continued the AG.

Once people paid the fee they were told to contact a bank to get their credit card. But the bank told consumers to fill out a credit card application and in most cases the consumers