CallerId4U, Inc. - Millions of Illegal Telemarketing Calls

Can we file a class action lawsuit against the FTC or the FCC for NOT doing their duty?  They should have the authority for a cease and desist order to halt CallerID4U and its siblings in midaction.  It would seem to me that this area would be a gold mine for class action suits!

(1) Anyone can file a suit for anything, it is winning one that is the hard part.

(2) I believe a judge would dismiss such a suit because you lack what is known in legal parlance as "standing". You may also need the government's permission (Sovereign Immunity).

(3) "Class action" is a term which is much bandied about, but it is rarely a good thing unless you are one of the attorneys who will benefit from it.

(4) You aren't going to like this, but these agencies are in fact mostly discharging their duties under the laws as they stand. You need to pursue changes in the laws, and even then, there are precedents and Constitutional issues to address.

(5) Nope. No gold mines.

You need to stop voting for democrats and republicans. Just stop it. Vote for anyone else.

I believe that there are quite a few law firms who would be glad to file a class action lawsuit against CallerId4U that's worth a few hundred million dollars - they just need to hear from someone who has received a robocall from CallerId4U and who is willing to be the lead plaintiff in the case.

Lawyers are restricted from directly advertising for plaintiffs, so if anyone is interested in being the public plaintiff in a potentially class action lawsuit, make a few calls to some law firms.

CallerId4U and it's principles appear to have a sizable amount of assets that could be collected through successful litigation.

In my opinion, any case against CallerId4U for violations of the FTC's Telemarketing Sales Rule (TSR) would be a home run, as it seems totally clear that they violate the prohibition against providing substantial assistance to individuals making illegal telemarketing calls.  In my mind, there is zero doubt that they are violating the TSR.

Unfortunately, the TSR needs to be enforced either by the FTC, or an Attorney General of one of the states.  There is no provision for ordinary citizens to seek their own private cause of action against a violator.

The FCC has their own rules covering telemarketers, called the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA), which allows consumers to seek $500 in automatic damages against telemarketers who call them in violation of the TCPA.  The legal burden would be to convince the court that CallerId4U had a role in initiating these calls.  I believe that a clear and convincing case could be made, but it's not as straight forward as a case under the TSR rules.

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Here's the provision of the TSR that empowers individuals to initiate legal action against telemarketers.  Remember, you could even pay modes $25 or so filing fee and sue CallerId4U in your local Small Claim's Court - there are a number of web sites out there that guide you through this process.

http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/47/227

A person or entity may, if otherwise permitted by the laws or rules of court of a State, bring in an appropriate court of that State—
(A) an action based on a violation of this subsection or the regulations prescribed under this subsection to enjoin such violation,
(B) an action to recover for actual monetary loss from such a violation, or to receive $500 in damages for each such violation, whichever is greater, or
(C) both such actions.
If the court finds that the defendant willfully or knowingly violated this subsection or the regulations prescribed under this subsection, the court may, in its discretion, increase the amount of the award to an amount equal to not more than 3 times the amount available under subparagraph (B) of this paragraph.

One more thing to point about about CallerId4U:  They purport to be located in an office in Seattle Washington, but this is not true:

CALLERID4U, Inc. (CALLERID4U) , a
Delaware Corporation having its principal
place of business at
93 South Jackson Street, Suite 38-480, Seattle WA 98104-2818

It turns out that CallerId4U's "principle place of business" is actually just a mail forwarding service and is definitely not a real office location: https://www.earthclassmail.com/Seattle-Address

We believe that their real office is located in the Los Angeles, California area, most likely in the vicinity of Torrence CA.

JD,

Look again, "ANGRYGRAMMA" didn't say anything about suing CallerId4U, she was suggesting a suit against agencies of the Federal government - a VERY different topic than what you addressed.

As for action against CallerId4U - as I understand it they are not initiating the calls, so I don't think you would be likely to prevail without first proving that the caller was breaking the law, and then proving that there was an intentional and knowing conspiracy between the caller and CID4U to break the law, and that CID4U somehow expected to benefit in some way beyond ordinary telephone charges. Prove that and you might even be able to make an argument for RICO prosecutions. CID4U is going to argue common carrier, and that they had no way to know the contents of calls, or whether any given call was lawful. No matter what you and I "know" from common sense, those are pretty formidable arguments.

A "facilitator" company shares liability with the creeps who actually generate the calls per the Telemarketing Sales Rule. That provision is vital for ensuring that violators don't slide through the gaps of a dragnet by simply diffusing their activities among many players.

I do, however, nod to your pessimism in considering how a real lawsuit would go. These scam callers have gone to a lot of trouble to create (barely) "plausible deniability" and will not make prosecution easy. JD has done an admirable job of drawing dotted lines between the bad actors. I fear it will take fat and solid connectors to defeat their lawyers.

Whoops, I shouldn't be seen talking to you here this time of night, lest Consumer begins to suspect that we're two different people.

I suspect that the cost and burden of a large class action lawsuit could effectively shut down CallerId4U, regardless of the strength of the case.

The class action lawsuit against Pacific Telecom (who operated the same scheme as CallerId4U) argues that they violated the Telephone Consumer Protection Act and seeks $500 per violation.  They were using a shell company in Belize though, so it makes for even more egregious conduct.  It's not yet known if CallerId4U has a shell company.

It will be interesting to see how that case proceeds - a response from Accuardi and Pacific Telecom to the lawsuit is due soon and I will publish it when it is filed.

What appears to be most effective in shutting down Pacific Telecom was the fact that Oregon and North Dakota public utility regulators revoked their utility registration.  This caused NANPA (who regulates phone numbers) to free their phone numbers.

It's important for everyone to send complaints about CallerId4U to Oregon and North Dakota regulators, in order to give them the basis to revoke their utility designation.  Even call them up and urge them to do something - they want to take action, but they have strict procedures to follow to get the revocation process going.

Washington utility regulators don't seem to have any interest in taking action against these rogue telecom utilities.  We plan to write an article showing how they've received hundreds of complaints regarding Pacific Telecom, yet filed to properly record those complaints or take any action on them.

What is sad here folks that for all of the hustle and bustle, they are going to get fined only $11k (probably) for all of this nonsense where as they should be fined $1,520,024,000 (11k per compliant)...

I am currently taking CallerID4U to small claims court. I will post updates here.

The bottom line is that if, as lone stranger suggests, CallerID4U is allowed to claim they had no idea about the content of the calls and gets off scott free, the TCPA's private right of action is basically meaningless. As a private individual, I do not have the time, money, or knowledge to file a bunch of subpoenas and crap just to maybe win $500, and I'm in a much better position than most private citizens.

Don't let me worry you - I'm really on your side and hope you win.  I never mind being wrong about these things.  As always, the law boils down to what the court decides.

My hearing has been scheduled. I know the suit has been filed but do not know the the defendants have been served. When they are served, I may hear from them about settlements. If I prevail in this case I will post explaining how to take these fake telecoms to court.

I'd like to know if the above statement actually came from CallerID4U. Perhaps I will see if someone at 800notes will give me the IP address. If it is them, it would be great evidence in my lawsuit.

Good luck! Keep us posted.

"8.  Steve Hamilton of Pacific Telecom has been listed as the technical contact for CallerId4u.com domain registration.  The domain registration is currently hidden behind a private listing."

That!

Red flags of shadiness arise with a hidden domain registration, for anything other than blog site.

I found out what happened to the Madison, WI class action case (http://madisonrecord.com/issues/332-class-act ... one-dialers-act). Turns out the lawyers there dropped it after CallerID4U apparently provided them with the name of the telemarketers who called them. They won a default judgment in that case and have not been able to collect.