IDT and Union Telecard Alliance Sue Everyone who is Someone in the Prepaid Calling Card Business

I was shocked when I saw the news on Business Week that IDT and Union Telecard Alliance (their calling card distribution arm) had filed a civil anti-fraud lawsuit against much of what's left of the prepaid industry. The suit claims that various companies have been engaged in deceptive rating practices that prey on consumers to fool them into thinking their products are better and giving an unfair market advantage.

The companies who received the honor include:

1. CVT Prepaid Solutions, Inc.
2. Dollar Phone Corp. (Dollar Phone Services, Inc., Dollar Phone Enterprises, Inc., Dollar Phone Access, Inc.) - this Dollar Phone Guy has a lot of companies!
3. Epana Networks, Inc.
4. Locus Telecommunications, Inc.
5. Total Call International, Inc.
6. STi Phonecard, Inc.
7. Find & Focus Abilities, Inc - Never heard of these guys!
8. VOIP Enterprises, Inc.
9. Telco Group, Inc.

I imagine that it's not just coincidence that the timing of this suit happened to coincide with their Q2 financial results announcement showing that their calling card sales were slumping.

Hey if you can't beat em sue em!

The business does need to be cleaned up, it's just very odd to see it trying to be done this way. It will be interesting to see how this plays out.