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FTC Targets Massive Car Warranty Robocall Scheme
coondoggie writes "Robocalls are a scourge, and the Federal Trade Commission today took action against one outfit by asking a federal court to shut down companies that have been bombarding consumers with hundreds of millions of allegedly deceptive robocalls in an effort to sell vehicle service contracts. According to the FTC, the robocalls have prompted tens of thousands of complaints from consumers who are either on the Do Not Call Registry or asked not to be called. Five telephone numbers associated with the defendants have generated a total of 30,000 Do Not Call complaints. Consumers received the robocalls at home, work, and on their cell phones, sometimes several times in one day. Businesses, government offices and even 911 dispatchers also have been subjected to the calls, the FTC said."
Reader powerlord points out that another such company, not named in the FTC filing, raised the ire of thousands of internet-goers, who struck back by rickrolling the company's voice mail and digging up personal information on the company's president.
I've been getting calls on my cell phone and my work phone (many other people in my office have been getting calls too). Funny thing is I have a company car that is only a year old, I doubt the warranty is running out, especially since my company BUILT the car.
I actually called the number back to figure out what the scam was, the guy on the other side asked me for my auto information. I told him that since he called me up, he should already know what my information is. Then the guy hung up on me.
I hope there is a public lynching.
"Action without philosophy is a lethal weapon; philosophy without action is worthless."
Holy crap, the FTC did NOTHING until more than 30,000 complaints were received. You'd think the threshold would be a hell of a lot lower. Your tax money at work- thanks assholes.
What a strange bird is the pelican, his beak can hold more than his belly can.
Anything which makes unwanted bells go off in my house by remote control is an invasion of my peace and quiet. Get some laws passed that allow the victim to hit #5 on their phone to charge the caller $5.00, then I'll be happy. If someone WANTS these calls, that's fine. Don't push #5. Most people don't want these calls and the victims should be able to instantly make these groups feel the pressure back in a big way.
Groups like The American Teleservices Association (rebranded to remove "Telemarketing" from their name) and The Direct Marketing Association talk U.S. Congressmen into passing laws which enable annoying, invasive and often fraudulent activities from this lowlife "industry". It's an industry to the extent that people get paid to ring bells in my house but jeez - earn a living some other way. Annoying everyone over the phone [I believe] is not an "industry" as the lobbyist associations claim. If there was money in ringing your doorbell and hitting people with buckets of paint ten times a day, I'm sure there would be a lobbyist group for that, too. Oh wait... that's PETA.
Most of the stuff on
Actually, they don't wait to get shut down, usually.
I used to work for one of the top level (*cough*) product companies in this type of scam. I was too naive at the beginning of my employment to truly know what was happening. I learned really quick after the FTC paid a house call and quit the company. No charges were ever filed.
In short, this is how the scam works: A company is selling suspect products, web pages, in my case (hey, it was the 1990s). The hire a shady parent telemarketing company who then sets up, or hires out, smaller boiler room telemarketing companies. These smaller companies are the ones actually placing the calls and rarely have much more than 50 employees. They sell the "product" and everybody takes a cut of the deal. The small companies are rotated out, as the parent post pointed out, with a similar company with the same office, equipment and employees under a new company name and official owner every 3-6 months. This is faster than the FTC and FCC can process complaint claims. When said government agencies question the upstream companies about the crooked deals, they point to the small boiler room company, now closed and with all it's paperwork destroyed, as the source of the criminal act and show the feds sham paperwork that states their "clearly legal guidelines that the rogue company clearly disregarded." Of course, everyone, at the managerial level, is in on the corrupt deal and are fully aware it's illegal. But, this shell game scam creates plausible deniability and prevents the government agencies from putting the top level companies out of business and their owners in jail.
The owner of this "warranty" company in TFA sounds just like the boss at the company I used to work for and is likely just as guilty. The biggest problem is that this system works so well that you have to put some really suspect laws on the books to have any hope of going after the people really responsible as you can never prove beyond a reasonable doubt that they were having proxy companies commit a crime for them unless they make a serious mistake.
On a slightly related note: Why do government agencies never talk to the likely underpaid and abused file clerk(s) when they investigate a company? Why do they only interview the managers? The managers usually have a well prepared set of lies for the feds and self motivation not sell out the company. The file clerk(s), even if they've been given the company lie, will likely be more than willing to sell out the managers, especially if immunity and a cut of the fine are offered, and will have the documentation, if there is any, to back up any claims they make. (Guess what my position was at the web company?)
"Be particularly skeptical when presented with evidence confirming what you already believe." -