A high school scouting and college recruiting business was forced to change language on its website and pay back customers after agreeing to a deceptive claims settlement with the New York Attorney General.
The service, National Scouting Report, which proclaims itself as "the world's leading authority in recruiting student-athletes to college since 1980," was alleged to "contain false claims about the success of their recruiting programs and made promises about supposed services provided by scouts that went unfulfilled," Attorney General Eric Schneiderman announced in a statement.
As part of the deal, NSR agreed to change its advertising and pay back customers in New York, which totaled more than $20,000.
"Preying on the hopes and aspirations of New York's young, devoted athletes is incredibly cynical," Schneiderman said in a statement. "Students attempting to use their athletic promise to further their educational opportunities should not have to worry about being exploited by those seeking to make a profit without any consideration for their success."
National Scouting Report has salesmen, called scouts, that sell the program, at a cost of what Schneiderman's office says is more $3,000 each, at high school events. Parents then submit videos of their children, which are posted on the company's website. Coaches can then access the website and find prospects.
Schneiderman alleges that, in some cases, once payment is made, there was no seeing through of any process and calls went unreturned.
A message left at the main headquarters of NSR in Alabaster, Alabama, was not immediately returned.
NSR claimed on its site that 90 percent of customers received offers and 25 percent were placed with Division I schools, a claim which Schneiderman's staff said the company could not back up.
In addition to changing advertising, the settlement requires the company to change the way it sells to families.