This week, an administrator working for the Federal Trade Commission began mailing checks to more than 172,000 consumers nationwide who were defrauded by a scam in which consumers were falsely promised free gifts such as shopping sprees, movie passes, and gas vouchers and wrongfully paid monthly fees for “program memberships” in discount buying and travel clubs. Consumers who were victims of the “Wal-Mart Shopping Spree” scam will receive a total of more than $3 million in refunds. These are legitimate checks, and the FTC urges consumers to cash them. In this 2008 case, known as Universal Premium Services, Inc. , the court banned Brian K. McGregor, the architect of the scheme, from telemarketing and selling program memberships. McGregor and Membership Services Direct, Inc., also known as Continuity Partners, Inc., were ordered to pay $28.2 million. The amount of money consumers receive from the redress administrator will vary, depending on how much they lost in the s...