What's the deal on this new baseball scam?

THEBULLPEN

5 players "linked" to a phony phone card scam in Dom Rep, SI Reporting but not really saying how they are linked. Big names. Anyone have any insight?

RANDYMOSS84

Customers cry foul over MLB fone cards

They are among the top baseball players in the world. And because they are Dominican, they make their community proud.

But hundreds of hard-working members of the Dominican community here who buy prepaid phone cards to call home - particularly the ones called Grandes Ligas that feature pictures of major league stars - are now feeling betrayed by the athletes.

"Many people buy them because of the players," said José Rodríguez, 50, a traveling salesman who came to New York from Santiago in the Dominican Republic 20 years ago.

"I like David Ortiz [a Boston Red Sox slugger] and Pedro Martínez [a Mets pitcher], and I have bought their cards. But you get far fewer minutes than you pay for, calls are interrupted or you just cannot get through. Something has to be done."

Besides Ortiz and Martínez, Miguel Tejada, the Baltimore Orioles shortstop; Vladimir Guerrero, the Los Angeles Angels outfielder, and Octavio Dotel, a pitcher with the Oakland Athletics, appear on the cards. There is even a phone card bearing the image of Mets general manager Omar Minaya.

"Perhaps the players were trying to help a friend out, but one way or the other they are deceiving the public," Rodríguez said.

Now, the Bodega Association of U.S., Inc.; Coalición Destino 2000; the Dominican Community Center and Neighborhood Retail Alliance, as well as hundreds of people from the local Dominican community are preparing a multimillion dollar federal lawsuit against the phone card companies and the baseball players, claiming deceptive advertising and fraud.

"The players are doing this for the publicity, but they should not have endorsed a product that does not work. The ads give you the impression that some of them could be the owners of the cards," said José Fernández, president of the association, adding that hundreds of people have come forward in the past few days.

Martínez, Ortiz, Tejada, Guerrero and Minaya have said that they are disassociating themselves from the phone cards. Fernández, though, believes this is not enough.

'That's a good thing," he said. "But they can't simply wash their hands like Pilate. They participated in something that defrauds people. They are responsible for the harm they caused."

Yesterday, the Bodega Association and several individual phone card users who say they were defrauded held a press conference in front of the Park Ave. offices of Major League Baseball.

"We are asking the players to join us in denouncing the fraud," said Richard Lipsky, a spokesman for the Bodega Association. "If they do, we won't sue them."

In that case, only the companies who own the phone cards would be taken to court.

"They are the ones making lots of money," Lipsky said.

Yet consumers say it is not only that you do not get what you paid for, but also that there is no way to complain.

"Once, I paid for one hour and 20 minutes and I only got 20 minutes," said Bienvenido Gerardino, a retired businessman who lives in Brooklyn. He made it clear this was not the only time he had problems.

"Then I called the number in the back of the card, and a recording said no one was available," he said. "It's a shame, and players should not get involved with it."

Originally published on December 8, 2005