FTC Announces Crackdown on Two Massive Illegal Robocall Operations

The FTC announced court orders against two massive robocall telemarketing operations, both of which the FTC alleges have been making robocalls to consumers on the National Do Not Call Registry since at least 2012. On January 13, 2017, the FTC announced that several defendants in the two cases, FTC v. Justin Ramsey, et al. and FTC v. Aaron Michael Jones, et al., agreed to court orders that permanently ban them from (1) making robocalls; (2) making any calls to numbers listed on the Do Not Call Registry; (3) violating the Telemarketing Sales Rule (“TSR”); and/or (4) assisting any others in doing so. Furthermore, the settling defendants will collectively pay the FTC a total of more than $500,000.

In FTC v. Justin Ramsey, et al., the FTC alleges that in one week in 2012, the defendants made more than 1.3 million illegal calls to consumers. Three companies involved in dealings closely associated with the defendants have agreed to settle. The court orders of these three companies impose a $1.4 million judgement, which is suspended based on the defendants’ inability to pay.

In FTC v. Aaron Michael Jones, et al., the FTC alleges that in the first three months of 2014, the defendants made more than 329 million robocalls to consumers, including to 32 million numbers on the Do Not Call Registry. Again, individual defendants and a related corporation have agreed to court orders which asses a $9.9 million fine. It appears that only $510,000 will be paid due to the defendants’ inability to pay, and the rest will be suspended, which will come due against any defendants who are found to have misrepresented their financial condition.

The entire FTC opinions can be found here: https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/press-releases/2017/01/ftc-announces-crackdown-two-massive-illegal-robocall-operations?utm_source=govdelivery.