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Calif. Attorney General files suit in computer kiosk scam
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The office of California Attorney General Kamala Harris is suing a handful of businesses and people who allegedly conned more than 30 African-American churches in the Southland. The scam involved shoddy computer kiosks.
Harris says two Maryland-based firms — Urban Interfaith Network and Television Broadcasting Online — persuaded churches to lease computer kiosks. Agents of the companies allegedly promised that the kiosks would connect the churches and their members to national advertisers, and would even make the churches some extra money. Advertisers would make the lease payments on the kiosks, and the churches would shoulder no financial obligation.
But the lawsuit says all that turned out to be wrong: the computers didn't always work, and the churches were on the hook for them for as much as $47,000 per kiosk. When the churches didn’t pay, the leasing agents filed collection suits against them.
Nearly 200 black churches across the country, including dozens in Los Angeles, Riverside and San Bernardino counties, leased the computer kiosks. The Attorney General’s complaint, filed in LA County Superior Court, seeks $800,000 in civil penalties.
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