Everyone loves getting a $1,000 gift card to their favorite store, but promises of that kind, especially those in text format, are generally a scam. At least that was the case for millions of consumers who received text messages from marketing scammers promising free gift cards to Walmart, Target, Best Buy and other retailers.

The Federal Trade Commission announced the operators of Advert Marketing Inc. agreed to settle charges that they allegedly sent millions of unwanted text messages to consumers across the country.

Under the settlement, the company is required to pay a monetary judgement of $4.2 million. However, because of the inability to pay, part of the judgment has been suspended. For their part, operators Scott A. Dalymple and Robert Wence must pay $15,000 each to the FTC and are required to destroy any consumer data they may have collected.

Additionally, the men are permanently banned from sending unwanted or unsolicited commercial text messages or assisting others in doing so.

According to the FTC, Dalrymple, Wence and Advert Marketing used false promises of free gift cards to draw consumers into their websites that asked them to provide credit card information to sign up for trial offers.

Scammers Settle FTC Charges They Sent Millions of Spam Text Messages [Federal Trade Commission]

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