Week in Review

State Capitol Week in Review
May 15, 2009
LITTLE ROCK – The Arkansas Attorney General has filed federal lawsuits against three companies that have been flooding consumers with tape-recorded calls trying to sell automobile warranties.
The telemarketing calls are illegal for several reasons. They are automated, which means when you answer the phone a tape-recorded voice gives you a sales pitch. Also, the calls are made to telephone numbers that have been registered on the Do Not Call list.
The companies relied on a method of caller ID "spoofing," which is illegal. This practice deceives consumers by making a phony number show up on caller ID.
The attorney general said that the services being sold by the telemarketers were often too expensive and unnecessary, and there is evidence that people who bought warranties had trouble getting payments when they filed claims.
The three companies are: Auto Warranty Solutions of St. Charles, Missouri, Vehicle Services, Inc. of Boca Raton, Florida and Dealer Warranty Services of St. Peters, Missouri.
The lawsuits cite the federal Telephone Consumer Protection Act provisions that prohibit unsolicited commercial calls from telemarketers that use pre-recorded voice messages. There are some exceptions in the law, such as when a dentist or physician calls patients to remind them of an appointment, or when a store calls a customer to let him know an order has arrived. Those calls are allowed because they are not solicitations or advertisements.
With the capabilities of modern communications technology, if it were legal for telemarketers to use pre-recorded solicitations people's phones would never stop ringing. Automated telemarketing calls could multiply in frequency the same way spam has done on email accounts.
The automated telemarketing calls were made to residential phones, cell phones and work phones. Arkansas consumers helped the attorney general build a case. They responded to the attorney general's request to contact his office when they received the calls. Nationwide, about 300,000 complaints were filed. The Federal Trade Commission is also participating in efforts to stop the "robocalls."
Nationwide, more than 172 million telephone numbers have been registered on the Do Not Call list. Since the Do Not Call program began in 2003, the number of people taking advantage of it has grown rapidly. For example, within the first three months of operation the number grew to 50 million phones.
You can sign up for Do Not Call by dialing 1-888-382-1222, but it's important to remember that you must call from the telephone you wish to register. You can also register a phone number by going online at www.donotcall.gov/
It is easy and only takes a few minutes to register a number over the Internet.
Telemarketing firms have tried various ways to circumvent the Do Not Call law, such as setting up non-profit organizations that call people allegedly as part of a survey. After people answer the phone and take the survey, they are connected to a salesman who tries to sell products. That is against FTC regulations.
Also, some telemarketers have set up shop overseas to make calls, but it is still illegal for them to call phones on the Do Not Call list.