$70 Million Phone Charge: Montana Family Scams Customers

A family in Montana is accused of spending $70 million in charges onto customer phone bills. The Associated Press reported that the family was reportedly taking cash through a religious organization to purchase land and pay for the husband's legal bills.L

The family includes Steven Sann, his wife Terry, son Nathan and an accountant Robert Braach who reportedly operate nine companies who have made anauthorized charges on their customer's phone bills. A civil complait was filed by the Federal Trade Commission.

People were made aware of the scam when some customers started to complain or phone companies became suspicious about one of their companies charging phone bills.

The nine companies that they own are electronic fax services that charge customer's phone bills and a voicem mail service. They are called "American eVoice, Emerica Media Corp., FoneRight, Global Voice Mail, HearYou2, Network Assurance, SecuratDat, Techmax Solutions and Voice Mail Professionals," reported the AP.

The Sanns were adding a charge at the end of the phone bill of $14.95 until customers caught on and started to challenge the unknown charge.

"The FTC is asking a judge to issue a preliminary injunction that will force the Sanns to stop operating the companies and freeze their assets. In a court filing Friday, Sann's attorney, Sarah Rhoades, asked U.S. District Judge Dana Christensen for a stay in FTC civil action, saying there is a criminal investigation already under way," reports the AP.

The AP reports that some of the money that they stole went to purchanse land in Montana where Steven Sann has a youth camp while some went to a court case to defend Sann in a medical marijuana case. For these the AP reported that the money was depositied into the account of a religious organization called Bibliologic that was set up by Branch and Sann.

There have been hundreds of complaints filed against the businesses owened by the Sanns and it is reported that they have made $70 billion since 2008. The AP reported that Sanns' companies have returned more than $40 million of that after customer's complained.

"Last April, the Sanns' companies had 119,810 voice mail accounts open, but only 12 customers actually accessed their accounts. From March 2010 to April 2012, fewer than 1 percent of the people purportedly with voice mail accounts through the companies actually accessed them," reported The AP.