Alyon Technologies Inc. will drop claims to $17 million it charged consumers to settle a federal fraud complaint, and it may forgive another $22 million if consumers challenge additional bills, the Federal Trade Commission said yesterday.
According to the FTC, Alyon Technologies, Secaucus, NJ, issued bills for use of its online adult-content services without authorization. More than 200,000 consumers may qualify for refunds as a result of the settlement.
Alyon automatically detected the phone numbers of consumers who dialed into its $4.99-per-minute service via modems and matched the phone numbers to other information for billing purposes, the FTC said. Due to problems with the billing system, some consumers who never used the service were charged. In some cases, minors accessed the service without the knowledge or authorization of the owner of the telephone line used to dial the service, according to the FTC.
