Jul.02, 2010

Three Jacksonville men have been arrested by postal investigators, accused of selling fake Yellow Pages ads to businesses.

According to the 22-page criminal complaint filed in Atlanta, the men worked out of a business building in the 300 block of First Street North in Jacksonville Beach. They operated under the name United Directories, Yellow Pages United, Directories Yellow Pages and Yellow Pages United Directories. Prosecutors said, however, the business was not connected to the Yellow Pages.

The criminal complaint was filed in Georgia because the men had a post office box in Atlanta.

The complaint showed that the men were accused of sending solicitation forms to victims that were designed to appear like a renewal form for an ad in the Yellow Pages. Investigators said the forms even bore the well-known Yellow Pages "walking fingers" symbol.

The document shows that between September 2008 to the present, the business received more than 368,000 business reply mail responses. The total money stolen amounted to over $425,000,000.

The suspects face mail fraud and money laundering charges.