by Four robocall organizations have shut down and settled lawsuits in the wake of an investigation by the Federal Trade Commission…
The Federal Trade Commission announced it has cracked down on operations which made “billions of illegal robocalls.”
Four Robocalling Companies Hit by Multi-Million Dollar FTC Fines
The FTC filed lawsuits against four companies — NetDotSolutions, Higher Goals Marketing, Veterans of America, and Pointbreak Media — between the end of 2017 and through mid-2018.
NetDotSolutions licensed an auto-dialing system called TelWeb to other robocallers. Higher Goals promoted phony debt relief services. Meanwhile, Veterans of America allegedly conned people into donating vehicles to a fraudulent charity.
Pointbreak allegedly sent robocalls pretending to be from Google “data service providers” or “authorized Google My Business agencies.” It told business owners they were about to be marked as “permanently closed” in Google search results. Then, solicited hundreds of dollars to keep the listings active. Paying businesses would then be asked to pay higher amounts for search optimization.
The settlements prohibit the companies from other making other robocalls and even bar them from telemarketing, in some cases. The FTC also imposed fines ranging from $500,000 to $3.64 million.
Andrew Smith, Director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection, said: “We have brought dozens of cases targeting illegal robocalls, and fighting unwanted calls remains one of our highest priorities.”
