A Florida Internet company has allegedly offered online services for mortgage loan applicants that needed fake paystubs.
NoveltyPayCheckStubs.com, operating out of Tampa, has boasted that for $89.95 it can make “authentic looking (paycheck) stubs” that “will definitely fool anybody.”
But a legitimate payroll company has gone to court with a trademark infringement lawsuit against the now-defunct Web site.
And The Florida Attorney General has launched a civil investigation of the company.
Mortgage fraud criminals often rely on fake documents, including phony pay stubs, to dupe lenders.
According to a posting on the Web site of Florida Attorney General Charlie Crist, Novelty is cooperating with the investigation.
The company is being investigated for allegedly violating state law “by producing fake paycheck stubs which can be used to deceive third parties,” the attorney general’s office said.
The company may also have violated the Florida Fictitious Name Act, according to the notice.
According to the federal lawsuit filed by Automatic Data Processing — or ADP, a leading New Jersey-based payroll processor, NoveltyPayCheckStubs.com has promoted that it can fake ADP “paycheck stubs … to prove your cash and income to someone.”
“It is plain that defendants are peddling counterfeit ADP earnings statements for others to use to engage in fraudulent financial transactions,” ADP says in the lawsuit, which was filed in U.S. District Court in San Jose, Calif., where at least one of the company’s products was sold.
“By using the ADP marks, defendants trade upon the business reputation and goodwill of ADP, and unjustly enrich themselves through misappropriation of the substantial benefits of the ADP marks,” the lawsuit says.
“Defendants are passing off, and encouraging others to pass off, their counterfeit goods and services as authentic,” according to the lawsuit.
ADP is seeking damages that include up to $1 million for every phony paycheck stub bearing an ADP marking the company has created.
ADP claims to have annual revenues of $8 billion and approximately 550,000 clients worldwide.
According to the lawsuit, NoveltyPayCheckStubs.com operates out of Tampa mainly via the Internet. But the company’s Web site has apparently been taken down.
MortgageDaily.com attempted unsuccessfully to access the company’s Web site for more than three days.
The company could not be reached.
Michael D’Angelo Vincent, who is also known as Michael Vincent D’Angelo, and Angelo Bosco Vito are named as defendants in the suit. Their lawyer could not be reached.
