FTC SHUTS DOWN ROBOCALL SCAM

The FTC recently shut down scammers who were tricking consumers into providing their personal information, including bank account info.  The FTC filed a complaint in the Eastern District of New York against The Cuban Exchange, Inc. and sought a temporary restraining order .  Federal Judge, Judge Roslynn Mauskopt, entered an order granting the restraining order petition.  The order prohibits the defendants form making the robocalls.

The complaint alleged that the defendants made robocalls that played a prerecorded directing consumers to a bogus website, ftcrefund.com.  The defendants also used a phony caller-ID program, which masked the identity of the caller and purported to be the FTC’s Consumer Response Center, 877-382-4357.

FTC Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Chief, David Vladeck said, “To anyone hell-bent on breaking the law by making illegal robocalls, transmitting phony Caller ID information, or impersonating a federal agency, we have two words for you: Stop now” because “[t]he real Federal Trade Commission will come after you.”

Our firm represents victims of robocalls. The Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA, Pub L. No. 102-243, 105 Stat. 2394  (1991)), was enacted in 1991, and is codified at 47 U.S.C. §  227.  Congress intended the TCPA to “protect the privacy interests of residential telephone  subscribers” by placing certain restrictions on the use of unsolicited,  automated phone calls made by telemarketers who were “blasting” out advertising  by the use of both “facsimile machines and automatic dialers.”  (See,  e.g. Senate Report No. 102-178, October 8, 1991, 1991 U.S.C.C.A.N. 1968.)  The TCPA was enacted in response to the “increasing  number of consumer complaints” regarding “telemarketing calls and  communications.”  Id. at 1969.

The TCPA forbids companies from calling consumers’ cell phones using by use of auto dialing technology (ADT) without prior consent.  47 USC § 227(b)(1)(A). The TCPA provides for statutory damages of $500 to $1,500 per call.

Have you received robocalls from a company who you did not give permission to contact your cell phone?  Is the company calling for someone other than you?  Have you asked the company to stop calling you?  If you answered yes to any of these questions, you may be entitled to money damages under the TCPA.  Call us 24/7 for a free case review at 1-800-263-9091.  Click HERE to read about one of our TCPA cases filed against Regions Bank by attorney Micah Adkins.