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Texas-based college prep company agrees to refunds

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College Admission Assistance LLC, a Delaware company headquartered in Arlington, Texas, has agreed to change how it markets its services to Iowa households with college-bound students following a complaint that the company misled and took advantage of an Iowa couple. The Iowa attorney general’s office said in a statement that a Des Moines-area accountant filed a complaint on behalf of his clients, a Haitian-born couple now living in Iowa. The complaint detailed how College Admission Assistance drew the couple into a contract requiring payment of nearly $2,000 for private counseling and other services intended to prepare their teenage son for college, help select a school and arrange financial aid. The agreement arranged by the attorney general provides that any Iowans who signed up for the company’s services can obtain a refund for any unused portion of the contract term, and Attorney General Tom Miller urged any Iowans currently paying on such a contract to contact his office at (515) 281-5926. The agreement also requires CAA to change its marketing to eliminate the misleading solicitation letters and high-pressure presentations, and to pay $25,000 for future enforcement under the Consumer Fraud Act. As part of the agreement, the company denied wrongdoing or liability.