Fake Car Warranty Telemarketer Must Pay $3M

It was a joke, :) $45M in expenses, no way.

Guess what? I got the same call tonight. "Private Caller". No number. "Press zero to be connected." Just goes to a voice mail system. Not only should he be fined in excess of what he stole and all his auto-dialing equipment confiscated, but the phone company involved should be heavily fined as an accomplice.

Sorry if my penchant for satire confused anyone.  To be clear, I suspect the money is just where they planned on it being, safely stashed until the heat is off and they can relocate with a lower profile.  Costa Rrica, anyone?

On numerous occasions, I've gotten these third party automobile extended warranty offers in both the mail and over the phone, all telling me that the factory warranty on my automobile is about to expire. [on my 12 year old vehicle with 150k miles on it, heh, heh, heh]. I've always gotten a good laugh over these. The mail offers become fodder for my shredder, and the robocalls get the quick slam-down. How can people be so gullible to fall for this obvious scam? Are the people that fell for this scam the same ones that keep voting incumbents back into office?

"All of the money collected will be used for consumer redress."

Hmmm, their scam netted them $48 million, they pay only $3 million in fines. That's a clawback rate of only 6.25%, nothing to be proud of. Big fail by the government. What about the other $45 million that consumers lost?

Here's a good quote by Karl Denninger at http://market-ticker.org that is relevant to this situation:

"If we're going to keep to fines, they have to be a LOT larger.  Like 100x as large as the profits made, so that if you do it and get caught, you're fooked and out of business."

So how about it FTC? When are you going to impose that $4.8 billion fine on these jokers?

I can't believe they don't get any jail time.  Why do you go to prison for stealing a car worth $2,000, but don't go to prison for stealing $48 million?

i am surprised that these guys dont even get jail time , they should have been given atleast 15 years in jail   not a bad deal 48-3 still 45 million can buy new MERDEDES NOW AND WALK AWAY WITH ALL THAT CASH
SHAME ON FCC AS WLLL now We know why our country is broke and has such a HIGH deficet

I'm a lawyer and I've been a pro tem judge.  I don't understand why every dollar the company and its owners obtained by their illegal scam wasn't seized and forfeited.  And then fines and heavy jail time on top of that.  I myself fended off dozens of their phone calls over the years.  Prohibiting this guy from doing it again isn't going to stop him, only jail would do it.  I'm embarrassed constantly by our legal system.

My suspicions were confirmed when I saw what was the head of this scam. I knew what would be behind it. My mother got one of their cards. She died in 1989. I sent it back saying "return to sender occupant died in 1989.". That stopped the cards. They had to pay the return postage. The post office told me to return the card and the sender pays. That is the best way to get off a mailing list, make them pay return postage. I suspect where the scammer sent the $45 million. Out of the US. The best and most effective punishment is to force the wrongdoer to undo their deed at their expense. It is a shame it is not the old west. That would be a crime stopper. I hope Kohlfeld has a slow painful death. He will go where he deserves.

It's funny that you say the article is poorly written, but in the mere two sentences that you wrote, you have three errors.  You're probably a Republican.

Guess What? You are all correct! Does the government care?  N O T!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

You people are all so weak and victim-like. You don't have all the facts, you're not smart enough to understand the law and you automatically

The charges were that he "mis-represented" information and NOT that he just took money and ran, providing no service. Yeah, he lied about some things, but you people aren't smart enough to go get tha whole story.

Yet you'd wish him prison time with murderers and gang bangers for....making annoying sales calls? Idiots.

I'm also pretty sure most of the $45mil went to pay for actual warantees, staff, offices AND the commissions of his sales team - and no, none of you know if the sales guys were in on the marketing mishaps.

Most of you won't make $45 *thousand* dollars this year - you're not qualified to even think about numbers bigger than a million.

Nice idea but it the guy has 4 billion for fines, he's not telemarketing warantees anymore.
You go after big corporations with those kind of fines - like BP after the gulf spill.
It can't be the government's job to make people homeless for their mistakes; draconian measures will always be overused as often as they are underused.

Davey - there are exotic dancers that make over $45K a year....so don't compare money with brains.   You don't have to be smart to make a ton of money and making less does not make you stupid!

Once again, we've been ripped off by the pro-business republican FCC.