Palette "P.T.I" Incorporated says it's being harassed.

They started getting phone calls and invoices from a company in January.

The claim is that Palette Inc. owes them money for a product, no one remembers ordering.

The company started getting calls in January about an invoice from 2005!

We did some digging and found the company in question, Megabyte Info, has links to another company called I.T Data Direct.

That company was raided by RCMP and the competition bureau in 2007.

 

Serena turner says it started out of the blue four years ago ...

"My dad got a paper from the post office saying he had a package .. so he went and signed for it .. and he picked it up .. and if i remember correctly .. it was a CD," said Turner.

 

The CD contained a business directory. She never gave it a second thought until recently

 

"We randomly started getting bills by fax saying that we owed them $440 plus $502 interest," said Turner.

 

They were getting phone calls too from a company called Megabyte Info.

Serena never paid and now she believes her company was the victim of a telemarketing scheme that targets small businesses.

A previous "On Your Side" investigation uncovered a similiar scheme.

We aired a number stories in 2006 about small Montreal businesses. Each one told us they were targeted by a company called "I.T Data Direct" that was billing them them hundreds of dollars for a product they never ordered and then pestering them for payment.

 

Informants told us the whole operation was an elaborate scheme

After our stories aired, CTV was threatened with lawsuits and I.T. Data Direct soon closed down its offices on Decarie.

But it re-opened on Belmont avenue.

Then in October of 2007, the building on Belmont avenue and I.T. Data Direct was raided in a massive police operation.

Court documents we obtained link Megabyte Info to I.T Data Direct.

They also show police received hundreds of complaints against both companies.

 

But two years later no actual charges have been laid.

The owner of I.T. Data Direct at the time of the raids was George Haligua. He and others are fighting the search warrants in court. They claim "unreasonable searches and seizures" saying the documents were taken from trash cans on private property.

The RCMP won't comment.

 

As we continued our investigation we went back to I.T Data Direct's headquarters, the place that was raided in 2007.

By chance we got in through the front door. It's usually locked.

We were escorted out of the building by Eric Chenail.

According to documents we found he's listed as the company director for Megabyte Info Ltd., based in England.

 

We weren't able to get any answers or arrange for an interview with George Haligua.

But we do know from our original 2006 investigation that complaints against this series of companies came from small businesses not just in North America, but also in Europe.

As for Serena Turner, she is just frustrated and angry that her company might just be another victim in a list of targets.

Either way, she refuses to pay Megabyte Info a dime.

Serena Turner opened up a file with Phone Busters but she's still getting the calls.

She tries to ignore them.

The RCMP reminds people if they get calls they suspect are part of a scam, to hang up or request an invoice and call the police.