"Versatile" Lawbreaking Alarm System Hawkers Get a "Solution" from the FTC

The FTC reports that every fifteen seconds a home is invaded via telephone by an illegal call to sell an alarm system.

Well, I don't know the actual statistic, but it's sure felt that way across America for three of the past four years. Maybe, just maybe, a great many of those trashy calls will finally end. This week the FTC has sued and settled rapidly with perhaps Public Enemy #1 in this fraud category, Jasjit "Jay" Gotra and his firm known mainly as Versatile Marketing Solutions, alternately as VMS, VMS Alarms, Alliance Security, and Alliance Home Protection. These companies have kept footprints in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Texas.

This bunch established early that they did not care what the Telemarketing Sales Rule says or who's registered on what no-call list. If you owned a home, or lived in a house, or knew someone who does, you were getting a call to soften you up to buying an alarm system. I latched onto this story in Spring 2010, featuring spikes in complaints about calls citing security monitoring firm Monitronics and General Electric brand alarm systems. It took weeks for the underlying sales purpose of the calls to become clear, however.

Numerous mystified commentors heard flimsy "safety surveys" asking for the number of fire alarms and extinguishers they owned, delivered in thick South Asian accents by people who could barely pronounce their scripts. (In one report, a rep repeatedly demanded to know "do you have any fare larms"? [sic]) Anyone who questioned the drones was treated to rude insults and vile cursing.

This week's federal complaint fills in some long pregnant blanks, claiming that these goofy faux surveys were sales "qualifiers" for target phone numbers to be sold to and called by VMS. Gotra and his gang would also later purchase leads based on calls from our old robo-pal "Tom from Home Protection", with his scary crime statistics and his hot "yard sign" promotional offer. Of course, the way these tickler calls were scripted did not realistically set up any Established Relationship or permission for sales calls or any reasonable expectation that a person wanted to be sold something. VMS reps were told by individuals umpteen times that their sales calls were unexpected and unwelcome, and disobeyed their Do-Not-Call list orders. Gotra and company did not listen, and went on buying faulty sales leads from the same suppliers.

The good news is that Versatile Marketing Solutions cannot cower behind an excuse that it was misled by its lead generators. It shirked a duty to act upon warning signs in an industry where shared and vicarious liability are commonly found. The sorta-good news is that VMS is under a Stipulated Order and Injunction to obey the many laws it was supposed to obey in the first place without a judge holding a cattle prod to Gotra's backside. The woulda-been-good news is that VMS was given about a 90.6% discount on a $3.4 million fine for "inability to pay". (The rents on Cayman Islands mailboxes must be insane ....)

There is a larger and older story here of phone number spoofing, other business players, satellite TV installers, and the poor service experienced by those who actually bought into the alarm system offers. Let's not forget those close cousins illegally hawking monitored "personal medical alert" systems are still going strong. But I'll take a mitigated victory over none, and the comfort from so many consumer complaints being verified and bringing proper disgrace to a major pain telefraud shop.


links to the press release and court docs, all good reading:

FTC Reaches Settlement With Home Security Company that Called Millions of Consumers on the National Do Not Call Registry
http://www.ftc.gov/news-events/press-releases ... called-millions

Versatile Marketing Solutions, Inc., also d/b/a VMS Alarms, et al., and Jasjit Gotra
http://www.ftc.gov/enforcement/cases-proceedi ... ms-alarms-et-al

Of course, as I finish writing I see someone scooped me in the "Stop Tom" thread midday yesterday:
https://800notes.com/forum/ta-48a0eedf951c5ea ... 372318653857071

>>> The FTC reports that every fifteen seconds a home is invaded via telephone by an illegal call to sell an alarm system. <<<

And I would lay odds that the person who lives in that home gets very tired of all those calls!!

heh heh, yes .... Assuming the usual adherence to the thirteen legal hours, the one person's phone would ring 3120 times a day. That pushes a man beyond "tired" and into "suicidal". Else he'll be seen on the local TV news flinging Molotov cocktails from atop an overturned bus while shouting something about "revolution now". I've an uncle who gets a few illegal sales calls a day and pretty near wrecks his handset from slamming it down in anger.

quote from article:"  Finally, the order imposes a $3.4 million penalty judgment against the defendants, with all but $320,700 suspended due to their inability to pay. The entire amount will become due if the defendants are found to have misrepresented their financial condition."
These crooks have been getting away with this BS for years.    Basically, the only real punishment is a fine and then they virtually dismiss the fine!    And you wonder why these guys just keep doing it.

Quite true. They're guilty, settle quick, & then say they can't pay. Like they say, 'follow the money'.

Tom stopped trespassing on my phone several months ago.  The shill behind the soundboard probably saw my youtube video.

We need to have criminal penalties in addition to civil penalties.  Because those fines are just pennies to those violators.

Call ALL your elected officials, including the Republicans, Democrats, and the few Independents. Start with the Independents. Let's put the pressure on them to amend the do not call.  Don't forget to contact their opponents. Let's get the letters, phone calls, and emails a working.  

Let us know about their responses.  

800notes needs a Voter's Guide.

I plan on suing vms

Here's more fuel for the fire: http://www.ripoffreport.com/r/Versatile-Marketing-Solutions-Inc/Warwick-Rhode-Island-02888/Versatile-Marketing-Solutions-Inc-Monitronics-Charged-for-equipment-not-installed-and-ser-704015 (You'll have to copy and paste the link in your address bar-sorry)

I just received a call from this number, it is a recorded call with the following, no other information is given.:

"Attention. This is not a sales call. You've been referred by a friend or neighbor. You are eligible to receive a free wireless home security system. There is no cost for equipment or installation, and the system is monitored 24 hours a day by your local police, fire, and medical. You must be a homeowner to take advantage in this special offer. If you are interested in having this system installed at no cost to you, then please press 1 now. Once again, press 1 now. Otherwise, please press 2 to be removed from our calling list."
Notice there is no company information given in this recorded call, the person on the phone needs to press 1  to get this installed "at no cost to you".  WHAT?  Why would any company install a security system into a personal home at no cost?  Or the other option is supposed to be to press 2 to be removed from their calling list.  Why do I have a feeling that is NOT the case.

">>> The FTC reports that every fifteen seconds a home is invaded via telephone by an illegal call to sell an alarm system. <<<

And I would lay odds that the person who lives in that home gets very tired of all those calls!!"

That reminds me of that statistic saying that every 15 minutes, a woman is raped in NY City.  Well, maybe she should move and live elsewhere or learn self-defense.

"the system is monitored 24 hours a day by your local police, fire, and medical. "

Lie.  I used to work as a 911 dispatcher, and no house alarms are directly monitored by the police.  The alarm rings into the alarm company who then calls the police.

} Why would any company install ... at no cost?

"Give away the razor, sell the blades." Ever hear of that one? Waiving and discounting of startup costs is a common lure for other subscriber-type services, such as multichannel TV, telephone lines, and magazines.

The point of the alarm system hawking is not to "help protect your home" or even to install said system, but to rope you into a contract for system monitoring with a periodic fee. Many post-sale complaints can be found regarding poor and incomplete installations, failures which went undetected for months, and cases where Monitronics was not actually monitoring because of those faults or negligence.

The call you've transcripted is of course illegal on several counts. It's a canned sales message, probably sent to a DNC-registered number. The script lies about being "not a sales call", falsely claims referral by a familiar person, it fudges who is actually doing the monitoring, and there is no business name or return phone number disclosed. This is not a call source which could be trusted to obey a verbal or keypress demand to quit. This is one begging for you to file a TCPA suit if the cowards can be spotted.

Since it's not evident your call came from VMS, you should really report under the correct thread for whatever "this number" was.

As Resident47 states, the equipment isn't the profit.  This is generally a sales pitch to get a Monitronics system into your home.  The equipment probably is about $200 on Amazon/etc, but the service monitoring contract with Monitronics is a 3 year $35-$45/month deal.  So I'm sure there is a deal to VMS as the lead generator.  Oddly enough, if you really honestly do want Monitronics system for your house and think a $200 system with wireless 1 motion sensor and two wireless door sensors will take make you secure, go through them direct and it will cost about $100 less over three years.  As a datapoint, I pay close to $25/month for monitoring, and believe I have a much better system than this.

"all but $320,700 suspended due to their inability to pay" - This is why the government will not stop telemarketing.  The "ability to pay" is another term for "cost of doing business".

Also, which number did they call you from?
If you have the number, please post in the number thread.
Use the search box and type in the number.
If there are no posts under the number, then create a post there to start the thread.

https://m.facebook.com/jay.gotra

Here's his Facebook page if you want to tell the CEO of VMS how you feel:https://m.facebook.com/jay.gotra