Nearly $85,000 will be refunded to more than 350 Iowans after a months-long effort to recover the unauthorized withdrawals from checking accounts. Iowa Attorney General, Tom Miller, says an investigation by the Consumer Protection Division revealed four related schemes perpetrated by Globe Marketing Group and its owner, Deanna S. Stone, currently of Ann Arbor Mich. Two complaints were received last August, one from a 93-year-old Colfax woman and one from a 66-year-old Lamoni man, who said that out-of-state operators created checks to pull hundreds of dollars out of their checking accounts. The Consumer Protection Division issued several investigative subpoenas to determine who was behind those charges, which ultimately led to four settlements and $85,000 in refund mailings to 359 Iowans. “This case illustrates how important it is for consumers to be on guard against unauthorized charges, especially to their bank accounts and credit cards,” Miller says. “Older consumers in particular may be targeted by operations that place such charges in the hope that they’ll go unnoticed—which is too often exactly what happens.”
