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The Federal Trade Commission announced Thursday that the operators of Gigats.com agreed to settle deception charges.
Gigats.com is an education lead-generation company based in Orlando, Fla., that claims to prescreen job applicants for employers. However, the company was instead gathering information for for-profit colleges and career training programs, according to the FTC.
The federal agency alleges that consumers who provided Gigats with personal information typically requested in a job application were directed to call "employment specialists" who steered consumers to enrolling in education programs that paid Gigats for consumer leads.
"The FTC alleges that these so-called advisers falsely claimed to be independent education advisers but in fact only recommended schools and programs that had agreed to pay the defendants, typically from $22 to $125, for consumer leads that met their enrollment requirements," according to a news release.
A proposed court order imposes a $90.2 million judgment that will be suspended upon payment of $360,000. Gigats is operated by Expand Inc., which also does business as EducationMatch and SoftRock Inc.
