If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
Around 450 Floridians found this out the hard way after spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on a phony program that promised to cure alcoholism.
The Florida Attorney General says the Alcoholism Cure Company, owned by Robert Douglass Krotzer, claimed his program “cures alcoholism while allowing alcoholics to drink socially.”
A federal court in Florida has ruled in favor of the Federal Trade Commission and the Florida Attorney General and ordered the marketers of the phony alcoholism "cure" program to pay more than $700,000.
The court found the company falsely claimed that their program cost only $350 and consumers could cancel anytime.
The court also found that the company threatened to publicly reveal consumers' alcoholism when they tried to cancel their memberships.
The defendants also charged consumers’ financial accounts for fees they supposedly owed – ranging from $9,000 to $20,000 – without authorization.
The court’s order requires the defendants to pay $732,480, to be used for consumer refunds.
