The Minnesota attorney general filed a lawsuit Monday accusing Discover Financial Services of tricking consumers into buying optional products that would protect them from fraud and financial hardship. The lawsuit, filed in Hennepin County District Court, contends that Discover, one of the nation's largest credit card issuers, made 'aggressive, misleading and deceptive' telemarketing calls to sign up consumers for these products, which include identity theft protection and a credit score tracker. The complaint said cardholders were told that the company was making the calls as a courtesy, not to make a sale. Some customers were signed up for financial products -- and charged on their credit cards -- without their knowledge. Others were induced to say 'OK' or 'yes' to a seemingly benign statement, not knowing that they were agreeing to be charged for a Discover product, the suit said. 'It's a case of a credit card company playing gotcha, rather than playing fair with consumers,' Lori Swanson, the Minnesota attorney general, said in an interview. 'People think their credit card company is going to prevent fraudulent charges, not make them.' The investigation was prompted by complaints from consumers in Minnesota, she said. In a prepared statement, Discover officials said it was their policy not to comment on pending litigation. However, company officials said it was not in their interest 'to sell a product that doesn't enhance our relationship with our card members.' 'Many card members find Discover's protection products valuable as they provide peace of mind,' the statement said. 'Discover seeks to maintain long-term relationships with our card members and for that reason, we have enjoyed the highest level of customer loyalty among leading credit card brands for 13 years.' The lawsuit appeared to have little impact on Discover's share price, which was up 20 cents on Monday, closing at $19.04. Last year, Discover reported $1.3 billion in profit. Identity theft protection costs $12.99 a month, and payment protection, another product in question, which allows a customer to defer credit card payments in the event of job loss or disability, costs 89 cents for every $100 in outstanding balances a month, the attorney general's office said. In 2009, such products generated $295 million in revenue for Discover, an 18 percent increase over the previous year, company filings said. The lawsuit lays out a scheme in which Discover -- and its affiliated processing company, DFS Services -- called customers and purported to be simply checking in to make sure they understood all the benefits that came with the card. Instead, some customers would end up unwittingly enrolled in a Discover fee-based program, the suit contends. In some instances telemarketers read consumers a 'disclosure' but intentionally butchered the wording, leaving out important words, running sentences together or speed-reading the text, 'all to make it incomprehensible to the consumer,' the attorney general's office said in a statement. In other instances, telemarketers would leave out the fact that the consumer was buying something. Instead, they would emphasize parts of their script suggesting that a sale had not occurred. That is what one customer, Bradley Sparish, 50, of Cottage Grove, Minn., said happened when Discover called him in 2009, a few months after he signed up for a Discover Card. On the call, a recording of which was obtained by the attorney general's office and played for reporters, a telemarketer offered to send information on the payment protection plan. But before hanging up, he sped through a 'disclosure' and garbled details on pricing. At the end, Sparish asked, 'I'm not automatically enrolled in this, am I?' The telemarketer responded, 'Don't worry. All we do here today is mail everything out to you.' In fact, Sparish was charged on his next monthly bill. He eventually got Discover to stop charging him, but he did not receive a refund. 'I pay the bill on time every month,' he said. 'I'm their best clientele. I have a great credit score. And yet they do this to me.' Swanson says her lawsuit seeks to require Discover to stop its telemarketing practices and pay penalties and restitution to consumers. A federal lawsuit filed earlier this year in New Jersey made similar claims, accusing Discover of using 'confusing and misleading sales tactics to surreptitiously enroll' card members in the payment protection plan. David S. Paris, the lawyer for the plaintiffs in that case, said the accusations fell into two categories: customers who had been led to believe they were simply receiving information from Discover but were actually enrolled in a financial product and charged a monthly fee and customers who had been enrolled, and charged, without being called at all. 'If one or two people called me and told me this happened to them, I might think they are irresponsible or made a mistake,' Paris said. 'But I get five to 10 calls a week on this.' 