McDaniel sues, alleges fraud by ID-card maker

Arkansas Attorney General Dustin McDaniel filed a consumer-protection lawsuit in Pulaski County Circuit Court on Tuesday against a company that makes photo ID cards and sells them for $70 each.

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The company's website claims the ID cards are "a hot product that's in demand and required by law," a claim that amounts to fraud, McDaniel said.

The lawsuit against Ameracard Enterprises Inc. and its owner Joseph Cassara of Stamford, Conn., alleges that the company violated the Arkansas Deceptive Trade Practices Act. According to a statement from McDaniel's office, about 1,200 cards have been sold in Arkansas since 2009.

In the lawsuit, McDaniel asks the circuit judge to issue an injunction to stop all vendors from selling the cards. He also asks that all money be refunded to any consumer who bought the cards from an Arkansas vendor and that those vendors be responsible or any monetary damage that happened because of the ID cards. The lawsuit also requests that the company forfeit any license, permit or right to do business in Arkansas, as well as pay a $10,000 civil fine and all attorneys fees.

A home number was not available for Cassara, and a telephone call to the Ameracard headquarters was not answered late Tuesday.

McDaniel said the cards had "no official function or legal significance," despite some vendors billing them as acceptable secondary and primary forms of legal identification.

"Those claims and the other claims used by the company to urge Arkansas vendors to sell these IDs are patently false," McDaniel wrote in the emailed statement.

The IDs bear the name of the state and are printed with an expiration date, a signature line and other personal demographic information such as birth date and height. They look similar to many states' driver's licenses. The back of the card features a one-line statement that reads, "Not an official identification card," and also states that the bearer certifies all material on the card is "true and correct."

The lawsuit states that there would be no reason to use the phrase "Arkansas Identification Card," unless the intent was to defraud customers.

"A fine print disclosure neither cures nor excuses the affirmative and deceptive representations made by, and on behalf of, the defendants," the lawsuit said.

According to the release from McDaniel and the company's website, Ameracard does not sell the IDs directly to consumers. It sells starter kits to local stores willing to be vendors for the company.

"The defendants seek out establishments, or vendors, to entice these establishments to sell the defendants' ID cards to consumers," according to the lawsuit. "The defendants entice these vendors to offer their products by advertising on a website and offering 'everything necessary to get you up and running' and representing that it 'is a low-risk investment that returns a quick profit.'"

The cards, however, are also popping up as fake IDs used by minors trying to buy alcohol or enter bars, critics say. Several online discussion boards for law enforcement officials warn that the IDs are being confiscated in Massachusetts, Texas, New York and Wisconsin among other areas of the country.

A spokesman for McDaniel's office said the attorney general did not know if other states were seeking similar legal actions against the identification card company.

Metro on 08/27/2014

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