Phoenix, Arizona - Attorney General Mark Brnovich announced his office recently obtained a $110,000 judgment against Burudi Mwonyoni and his company, Publishers Service Office, Inc. The default judgment is the result of an Arizona Consumer Fraud Lawsuit alleging Publishers Service Office used a magazine subscription scam to defraud consumers throughout the United States. Publishers Service Office placed 48,000 telephone calls a month, using an auto-dialer, to sell consumers new or renewed magazine subscriptions.
"I’m as annoyed as anyone by relentless and illegal telemarketing phone calls," said Attorney General Mark Brnovich. "Deceptive telemarketers need to know the Attorney General’s Office takes complaints seriously and remains committed to prosecuting individuals who blatantly ignore Arizona law."
Publishers Service Office is alleged to have violated the Arizona Consumer Fraud Act by falsely claiming that Publishers Service Office was authorized by magazine publishers to charge or bill the consumers on behalf of the publisher. Publishers Service Office also allegedly disguised the telephone numbers from which it called consumers to make the numbers appear as originating from the state or area code in which the consumer lived.
The judgment prohibits Mwonyoni and Publishers Service from soliciting consumers over the telephone to purchase a periodical subscription and from requesting or receiving payments from consumers for subscriptions that Publishers Service claims to have sold to them. The judgment also requires Mwonyoni and Publishers Service to pay the Attorney General’s Office civil penalties in the amount of $110,000 and attorneys’ fees and costs incurred in investigating and prosecuting the case.
The case was handled by Assistant Attorney General Cherie Howe.