An U.S. federal judge issued a temporary restraining order Friday shutting down a telemarketing campaign that made hundreds of millions of alleged deceptive “robocalls” promoting vehicle warranty contracts.
The request for the restraining order granted by Judge John Grady of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois was filed by the Federal Trade Commission on Thursday.
The FTC said the telemarketing scheme has prompted “tens of thousands of complaints from consumers who are either on the Do Not Call Registry or asked not to be called.” This is a violation of federal law.
The pre-recorded, automated telemarketing calls made to cell phones and landlines have been deceiving consumers into thinking their car warranties are expiring, and pitching sales of service contracts falsely portrayed as extended warranties, the commission said.
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In addition to the FTC’s restraining-order request, the commission would further impose an asset freeze on all the defendants and put two of the corporate defendants under the control of court-appointed receivers.
#17: I worked in the Milwaukee AMC plant one summer in the mid-70′s while I was in college. An eye opening experience.
Apparently the Telcos that provided these clowns the means to communicate their scam, are blameless! And yet, entities like Napster WERE persecuted for aiding piracy (“driving the getaway car”). So why are the Telcos getting off scout free about this? Is the theft of tunes and movies, over the internet, considered the only serious crime?! But helping to propagate bogus warranty plans over the phone, IS NOT?! Let’s face it, this scam only effects us NOBODYS! And media piracy effects the super rich. Who apparently get more legal muscle gunning for them, via our government, than the rest of us nobodys do.
The Telcos all ought to be fined (substantially) for aiding these scammers. Who very likely knew what want was going on. But choose to profit from their scammer clients. Thus aiding them in breaking the law! If the courts can bring down Napster and others for aiding piracy. Then they can punish AT&T and others for making these “telemarketing” scams
possible, too. The deciding logic shouldn’t be the lobbyist connections of the victims! But I guess, IT ALWAYS IS!!!
I got ‘em three times:
#1. I waited until a “human” answered, and then asked her to tell me what vehicle had the expired warranty. When she (no surprise) couldn’t, I told her off and hung up
#2. I fed them some contradictory info about my “Toyota Camry”. They eventually caught on and ended the call.
#3. Hehe, had the poor sap thinking he was gonna get a sale (fed him bogus, but realistic info). He had to put me on hold for a minute at the last second, at which point I hung up. You could hear the excitement in his voice >:)
Moral of the story: don’t call me with a telemarketing scheme when I have nothing better to do.
Laze fare does not apply to douche-bagery. If I am taking your time and minutes, I need to provide you something valuable.
There is no way to get to a person when these car warranty people get to you. It’s not a smart way to do business and it pisses off the potential customers.