News

A room manager of a telemarketing call center operating out of Costa Rica was sentenced today to 11 years in prison for his participation in a massive, Costa Rica-based, telemarketing fraud scheme that targeted thousands of U.S. residents, resulting in victim losses of more than $10 million.

As of December 1st 2008, FTC requires any telemarketing call that delivers a prerecorded message to have a quick and easy way to opt-out of receiving future calls. The opt-out must work both for consumers who answer these calls in person and for those whose answering machines or voicemail services receive the calls.

The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) said that they have received many phone calls from Canadians who complain that they get more telemarketing calls than ever after having registered with the Do-Not-Call service.

If you live in Wisconsin, you have until tomorrow (Sunday, Nov. 30th) to get on the state's next do-not-call list.

800Notes has been under a DDoS since 5am EST. The pattern of the attack is similar to the one we had back in June. We are taking measures to filter traffic and do not expect any downtime.

Just seven telemarketing calls reported as illegal to the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services were all it took for a lawsuit to be filed against "Affordable Group Heating and Cooling Specialists".

Attorney General Lisa Madigan on November 12th filed a lawsuit against YP.com, alleging that, this company defrauds small business owners by adding unauthorized charges to their phone bills.

NY Times is reporting that Attorneys General in several states are now busy investigating the telephone sales scams promoting extended car warranties.

The state of Utah is taking steps to prevent spam adult-oriented text and e-mail messages from going to kids email boxes and cell phones with a new program called the Utah Child Protection Registry (www.utahkidsregistry.com). The registry serves like a do-not-call list.

As the election day is getting closer, the candidates moves are getting more aggressive. John McCain's campaign have been making robo-calls with a message about Democratic candidate Barack Obama's ties to William Ayers, whom the McCain campaign calls a "domestic terrorist" from the 1960s.

The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission is looking at tweaking its telemarketing rules just weeks after introducing a national do-not-call list.

Wachovia Corp. agreed to pay $200 million to settle lawsuits claiming it profited by ignoring fraudulent telemarketers who used the bank to help them steal from consumers.

Today Canada's communications regulator launches its national Do Not Call List (DNCL), giving households and cellphone users the chance to opt out of most unwanted telemarketing calls and introducing heavy fines for organizations that decide to ignore the new rules.

On Monday, the Federal Trade Commission urged consumers to be cautious of potential charity scams in connection with the damage caused by hurricanes Ike and Gustav along the Gulf Coast and in the Midwest.

Consumerist has a story on how marketers can trick your secretary into opening fax spam floodgates. It's illegal to cold call fax, so marketers use this trick that lets them spam your fax machine and be covered in case of legal action.