Stopping Those Irritating Robocalls

(SAN FRANCISCO) – Thousand of people receive calls from telemarketers selling debt reduction services or credit cards with promised lower interest rates; selling extended auto service contracts after telling them their warranties were about to expire; or telling consumers that they have won or are specially selected to receive a vacation package.

Many of these worthless or dubious deals are offered by companies operating autodialing businesses, which deliver prerecorded messages that allow clients to deliver large numbers of prerecorded phone calls, or “robocalls.” The prerecorded messages would last just a few seconds. If a call recipient who received a prerecorded message pressed “1″ during the message, the recipient would be transferred to a live operator who would attempt to sell the product or service.

In 2003, the Federal Trade Commission promulgated the Telemarketing Sales Rule (TSR) (www.ftc.gov/os/2002/12/tsrfinalrule.pdf), which implements the Telemarketing and Consumer Fraud and Abuse Prevention Act, 15 USC. 6101,­ 6108, as amended. The TSR covers telemarketing – any plan, program, or campaign to sell goods or services through interstate telephone calls. The TSR requires telemarketers to make certain disclosures and prohibits misrepresentations. It gives state law enforcement officers the authority to prosecute fraudulent telemarketers who operate across state lines. And it gives consumers instructions on how to stop unwanted calls.

In 2009, the TSR was amended to specifically address robocalls. An FTC Business Alert Reining in Robocalls discusses the amendment. (alt161-reining-robocalls-1.pdf)

However, companies such as banks, telephone companies, and airlines, which are exempt from FTC regulation, will now need to comply with the requirements as adopted by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). The FCC rules on calls to wireless phones apply to both voice calls and text messages. (http://transition.fcc.gov/Daily_Releases/Daily_Business/2012/db0215/FCC-12-21A1.pdf

Oregon prohibits political candidates and businesses from making robocalls. Washington state prohibits robocalls for commercial purposes.

In 2003, Congress gave the FTC authority to establish and enforce the National Do Not Call Registry.

The Do Not Call Registry is a list of phone numbers from consumers who want to limit the telemarketing calls they receive. The Registry is managed and enforced by the FTC, the FCC, and state officials. (http://business.ftc.gov/documents/alt129-qa-telemarketers-sellers-about-dnc-provisions-tsr) Most telemarketers should not call your number(s) once it has been on the registry for 31 days. If they do, consumers can file a complaint at the Do Not Call Registry website. Consumers are advised to place their telephone number(s) on the Do Not Call Registry. (www.donotcall.gov)

This year, under a settlement in FTC V. Asia Pacific Telecom, Inc. d/b/a SBN Peripherals, Inc., et al. (www.ftc.gov/os/caselist/1023060/120328asiapacificstip.pdf), SBN Peripherals, Inc., a robocall operation based in Los Angeles, was put out of the telemarketing business. This case is an excellent example of how a robocall company operates and the magnitude of the problem. This company bombarded consumers with more than two billion calls pitching a variety of products and services, including worthless extended auto warranties and credit card interest rate-reduction programs.

The order bans the defendants from telemarketing and requires them to give up roughly $3 million in assets.

The FTCs complaint alleges that the defendants delivered illegal prerecorded phone calls falsely claiming the caller had urgent information about the consumers auto warranty or credit card interest rate. Consumers who pressed 1 for more information were transferred to telemarketers who used fraudulent practices to sell inferior extended auto service contracts or worthless debt-reduction services. According to court papers filed by the court-appointed receiver, from January 2008 through August 2009, the defendants completed approximately 2.6 billion outbound robocalls that were answered by approximately 1.6 billion consumers, approximately 12.8 million of whom were connected to a sales agent.

To hear telemarketing sales pitches used by these defendants, go to auto warranty 1 (www.ftc.gov/opa/2010/06/audio/autowarranty-ex1.wav), auto warranty 2 (www.ftc.gov/opa/2010/06/audio/autowarranty-ex2.wav), credit card 1(www.ftc.gov/opa/2010/06/audio/creditcard-ex1.mp3), and credit card 2 (www.ftc.gov/opa/2010/06/audio/creditcard-ex2.mp3)

Of course, the plethora of laws will slow down, but not stop telemarketing abuses. Crooks dont always obey the law. What is also needed is alert, careful consumers.

What do you do if you receive a robocall?

• Never give personal information, including Social Security, bank or credit card numbers, over the telephone to an unknown caller.

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Company barred from doing further business in state

A telemarketing company state officials claim made dozens of “robocalls” to unsuspecting residents has been barred from doing further business in Mississippi.

SBN Peripherals Inc., doing business as SBN Dials, also will surrender $3 million in assets to the federal government, Mississippi Public Service Commission Brandon Presley said.

The PSC and Federal Trade Commission announced Monday the penalties against SBN Dials.

Presley said at least 50 complaints were lodged with the PSC alleging SBN offered “worthless extended auto warranties and credit card interest rate reductions” by calling people on state and federal “do not call” lists without their permission.

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Get the Best Price for an Extended Car Warranty

Most people will probably tell you that as soon as a factory warranty runs out your car will almost certainly suddenly find itself in need of a major repair. For anyone who is actually planning to keep their vehicle after that point, purchasing an extended auto warranty, from a reputable company such as Warranty Nation, can be an extremely worthwhile investment.

As with anything else of course, an extended auto warranty, also sometimes referred to as an extended service contract, is a high profit product the price of which can be aggressively negotiated.

Purchasing an extended warranty at the same time as you buy the vehicle means that you can include the cost of the extended warranty into the financing of the car. That can result in just the one small bump in your car payment every month rather than having to pay out a lot of money in just the one lump sum. However, it is not necessary to purchase an extended auto warranty when your vehicle is brand new if you do not want to. This type of financial insurance can be added on to your ride at any point before the standard manufacturer warranty runs out, without costing extra. It might even be possible to add on the coverage even after the expiry of the factory warranty, although this is usually a lot more costly.

It is possible to select from extended auto warranty plans with different levels of coverage and deductibles, in a similar manner to shopping for insurance. The great majority of extended auto warranties offer three levels of coverage. The first level is about the powertrain, the second level adds coverage for additional components and the highest level offers completely comprehensive coverage, including expensive to fix electrical systems.

If you are planning to purchase an extended auto warranty, it is important that you think about the risk that you are willing to take. If you buy the highest, fully comprehensive, level of coverage, then there is no danger of you being caught out by the unpleasant surprise of finding out that a part which needs to be repaired or replaced is not covered by your warranty.

There has been a big increase in the number of people who decided to take out an extended auto warranty, the reason being the peace of mind that they provide in a time when costs seem to be rising everywhere.

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ECLECTIC RANT: Stopping Those Irritating Robocalls

This year, under a settlement in FTC V. Asia Pacific Telecom, Inc. d/b/a SBN Peripherals, Inc., et al. (www.ftc.gov/os/caselist/1023060/120328asiapacificstip.pdf), SBN Peripherals, Inc., a robocall operation based in Los Angeles, was put out of the telemarketing business This case is an excellent example of how a robocall company operates and the magnitude of the problem. This company bombarded consumers with more than two billion calls pitching a variety of products and services, including worthless extended auto warranties and credit card interest rate-reduction programs. The order bans the defendants from telemarketing and requires them to give up roughly $3 million in assets.
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Stop car complaints before they start

Car complaints were among the most common complaints in 2011.

A California chapter of the Better Business Bureau surveyed drivers and found four of the top ten complaints involved a car issue.

Among the grievances: Problems with buying new (No. 1); car repairs (No. 2); used car dealers (No. 3); extended auto warranties (No. 4); and auto parts stores (No. 9).

KRMGs Consumer Guru Clark Howard says too often, our car purchases are emotional, not rational.

He says, The more research you do before buying one, the better off youre going to be, the less likely youre going to be taken advantage of.

Howard says before you go to buy a car, arrange your financing in advance with a credit union or small local community bank.

Research models youre interested in by reading the annual auto issue of Consumer Reports. They give recommendation by price point each April.

Howard says you can do your research on sites like www.NADA.com, www.KBB.com and www.TrueCar.com.

Also, have the vehicle inspected by an independent mechanic if youre buying used.

Used dealers and individual sellers sell as is and can legally tell you anything about the car.

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Mid-Atlantic Federal Credit Union & Point Breeze Credit Union Tap CRI …

Elkridge, MD CRI Solutions, Inc. today announced that it has signed multi-year agreements with Mid-Atlantic Federal Credit Union and Point Breeze Credit Union, both headquartered in Maryland, to provide its debt protection products. The product line from CRI Solutions will include not only life and disability protection but also offer unemployment benefits for the credit unions eligible borrowers.

We are proud that MAFCU and Point Breeze Credit Union have turned to CRI Solutions to utilize our debt protection services to offer increased benefits to their members while increasing credit union revenue, said Brooke Strohman, CRI Solutions President. CRI Solutions looks forward to continuing our partnership with these credit unions and provide products and services to benefit the credit union and its members.

CRI Solutions offers a full suite of financial products that provide protection for credit union loans, members, and for the credit union itself. In combination with its extensive training, incentive tracking programs and integrated technology, CRI Solutions helps credit unions deliver more products and services as well as earn more income.

About Mid-Atlantic Federal Credit Union
Mid-Atlantic Federal Credit Union (MAFCU) is a not-for-profit financial cooperative managed for the sole benefit of its members. Founded in 1968, MAFCU serves consumers and businesses located in Montgomery County, Maryland. For more information, visit www.mafcu.org.

About Point Breeze Credit Union
Point Breeze Credit Union is a member-owned, not-for-profit financial institution that serves over 47,000 members in the Greater Baltimore area. Point Breeze Credit Union serves employees and retirees of employers located within a 20-mile radius of a Point Breeze Credit Union branch. For more information, visit www.pbcu.com

About CRI Solutions, Inc.
CRI Solutions, a Transamerica company, serves credit unions by developing and delivering insurance and financial products such as Debt Protection, Credit Insurance, GAP and Auto Warranties. The companys best-of-breed technology platforms: CRIterionreg; and InterLendreg; offer market leading custom lending and workflow solutions, designed exclusively for credit unions. CRI Solutions technology offerings also include IT consulting, business continuity services, and indirect lending interfaces.

For more information, visit www.CRISolutions.net.
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CRI Solutions Launches Its New Corporate Brand To Showcase Its Identity As A …

Elkridge, MD CRI Solutions, Inc. today announced a rebrand of its corporate identity to reflect its role as a marketing arm and distributor for Transamerica. CRI Solutions unveiled a new corporate logo and re-branded its website at CRISolutions.net. As a Transamerica company, CRI Solutions continues to offer all of its financial, technology and security solutions to its credit union partners while also benefitting from the vast resources of Transamerica.

CRI Solutions is proud to be a Transamerica company and wanted our new corporate branding to showcase the strength of that relationship in the credit union marketplace, said Brooke Strohman, CRI Solutions President. CRI Solutions strives to be a tomorrow maker for our credit union clients and their members as we work to help drive business, improve service and increase revenue through customized and creative solutions.

CRI Solutions offers a full suite of products that provide protection for credit union loans, members, and for the credit union itself. In combination with its extensive training, incentive tracking programs and integrated technology, CRI Solutions helps credit unions deliver more products and services as well as earn more income.

About Transamerica
The Transamerica companies offer a wide array of innovative financial services and products with a common purpose: to help individuals, families, and businesses build, protect and preserve their hard-earned assets. With more than a century of experience, we have built a solid reputation on solid management, sound decisions and consumer confidence. For more information, visit www.transamerica.com.

About CRI Solutions, Inc.
CRI Solutions, a Transamerica company, serves credit unions by developing and delivering insurance and financial products such as Debt Protection, Credit Insurance, GAP and Auto Warranties. The companys best-of-breed technology platforms: CRIterionreg; and InterLendreg; offer market leading custom lending and workflow solutions that integrate financial products with the technology platforms. CRI Solutions technology offerings also include IT consulting, business continuity services, and indirect lending interfaces. For more information, visit www.CRISolutions.net.

Mitchell Schmale
Maroon PR
410-336-8571 or Mitchell@MaroonPR.com

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Massive Telemarketing Robocalling Operation By VoiceBlaze Halted

Defendants Allegedly Made Hundreds of Millions of Illegal Prerecorded Calls to Numbers on the National Do Not Call Registry

As part of the Federal Trade Commissions ongoing efforts to crack down onillegal, prerecorded robocalls,the FTC is taking legal action to stop two operations that allegedly enabled telemarketers to place hundreds of millions of illegal prerecorded calls to consumers around the country, including many who had registered their phone numbers on theNational Do Not Call Registry.

The FTCs complaints in both cases allege that the defendants offered self-service voice broadcasting a service that makes it easy for marketers who have no telecommunications expertise to deliver tens of millions of robocalls for pennies a call. The defendants arranged for marketers to deliver prerecorded sales pitches by uploading a recorded message and list of telephone numbers through web sites owned by the defendants that would then dial each uploaded phone number and play the designated prerecorded message.

These messages pitched a variety of products and services, including debt relief services, carpet and upholstery cleaning services, auto warranties, mortgage loan modification and foreclosure assistance, timeshares, satellite dish broadcasting, and burial insurance.

According to the FTCs complaint in the first case,Brian Ebersole, Voice Marketing, Inc., and B2B Voice Broadcasting, Inc.(the Voice Marketing Defendants) provided clients with access to computers, telecommunications services, and automated dialers needed to make telephone calls and deliver prerecorded messages. The Voice Marketing Defendants had the ability to make thousands of telephone calls simultaneously and deliver more than one million prerecorded messages each day. They also sold access to their voice broadcasting technology through intermediaries or resellers that sold robocall services under various names. The Voice Marketing Defendants made hundreds of millions of telephone calls that played prerecorded messages on behalf of such resellers.

One such reseller wasJGRD, Inc. d/b/a VoiceBlaze along with principles Charles Joseph Garis, Jr. and Randall Keith Delp all of whom were named as defendants (the VoiceBlaze Defendants) in a separate FTC enforcement action. According to the FTCs complaint, the VoiceBlaze Defendants marketed voice broadcasting services that used automated dialing equipment to deliver prerecorded messages through telephone calls.

In both cases, the defendants allegedly conducted or enabled telemarketing campaigns they knew, or should have known, illegally called numbers on the National Do Not Call Registry, abandoned calls by playing a prerecorded message after a person answered, failed to disclose the callers identity, and delivered prerecorded messages after September 1, 2009, when amendments to the Telemarketing Sales Rule largely prohibited such calls.

The FTC also alleged that the VoiceBlaze Defendants manipulated the caller names displayed on caller identification services, in violation of the Telemarketing Sales Rule. The complaint alleges that, rather than the name of the telemarketer or the name of the seller on whose behalf the telemarketer was calling, the VoiceBlaze Defendants caused consumers caller identification services to display names such as CUSTOMERSVC, CUST SERVICE, SERVICE, SERVICE ANNOUNC and INSURANCECO.

The settlement orders agreed to by the defendants in both cases bar them from violating the Telemarketing Sales Rule and require them to pay civil penalties. Each set of defendants will pay $10,000. The Voice Marketing Defendants and the VoiceBlaze Defendants also agreed to the entry of civil penalty judgments of $2 million and $1 million, respectively, which are suspended based on representations that the defendants lack the ability to pay. If a defendant is found to have misrepresented his or its financial condition, the full penalty will become due immediately.

The settlement orders also include monitoring and reporting requirements to ensure that the defendants comply with the terms of the orders. Specifically, the defendants have agreed to screen the prerecorded messages that subscribers deliver through the voice broadcasting technology they sell, and to stop telemarketing calls that violate the Telemarketing Sales Rule. Defendants have also agreed to distribute copies of the order to their customers.

Source:FTC

United States of America (For the Federal Trade Commission), Plaintiff, v. Brian Ebersole, Voice Marketing, Inc., and B2B Voice Broadcasting, Inc., Defendants
(United States District Court for the District of Nevada)
Case No. 3:12-cv-00105 – FTC File No. 0923174

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Hunt Valley Based CarChex Completes $5M Offering – cbl

By Brian Wolak

HUNT VALLEY, Md. — CarChex has completed a $5 million offering, raising the amount from a single investor.

The Hunt Valley, Md. based provider of extended auto warranties and vehicle inspections is led by CEO Jason Goldsmith, who bought the company in 2003 for $15,000. CarChexs inspector network now boasts over 900 inspectors in all fifty states.

Goldmith is named in an SEC filing along with Scott Levy, Ben Fenlon, Hyun Lee, as well as directors James Dale, Peter Rubin, and Steve Fader.

The SEC filing indicates that $500,000 of the proceeds will be used to pay outstanding indebtedness and $350,000 will go towards sales commissions.

Goldsmith bought CarChex after he was looking to purchase a 1996 Jaguar convertible from a car dealership in Portland, Oregon. Rather than endure the travel expenses to inspect the vehicle personally, he used CarChexs car inspection service which revealed the cars poor condition.

SEC filing: http://tinyurl.com/6s32caf

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ARA Cautions Giving Automotive Manufacturers Complete Authority Over Repair …

ARA Cautions Giving Automotive Manufacturers Complete Authority Over Repair Procedures

12/12/2011 8:45:12 AM

The Automotive Recyclers Association (ARA) is calling on the collision repair industry to proceed cautiously in recognizing only automotive OEMs published repair procedures as the official industry-sanctioned repair standards for collision repair. Recently, several prominent collision repair groups issued and signed a joint statement officially recognizing OEM published repair procedures as the collision industry#x2019;s repair standards.

ARA says its main concern with the position statement centers on recent auto manufacturers activity that could be viewed as aggressively pushing the limits of antitrust laws and the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act. ARA believes OEMs see recycled parts as a threat to their bottom lines and are revising repair standards to exclude recycled parts from the repair equation.

Automotive manufacturers have become more aggressive by releasing revised collision repair position statements that are even more biased and based on weak or no apparent scientific research claiming the recycled OEM parts are inferior to new OEM parts. In making these types of statements, auto manufacturers seem to be attempting to exclude recycled OEM parts from the market, which would result in only one source of parts and procedures for the repair of consumers vehicles the auto manufacturers, an ARA press release stated.

We believe that the goal of the manufacturers is to discourage the use of recycled OEM parts and secure a market that establishes automakers as the only source of parts and procedures for the repair of consumers vehicles, added ARA CEO Michael E. Wilson.

ARA cited a Chrysler position statement released last year that said: Chrysler Group LLC does not approve of or recognize structural repair procedures where Authentic Mopar Parts are not used for Chrysler, Jeep, Dodge and Ram vehicles. This statement suggests that consumers warranties might not be honored if parts other than Authentic Mopar Parts were used, ARA noted, adding that similar statements have also been released by American Honda, Toyota Motor Sales and Hyundai Motor America.

In response to these statements, ARA earlier this year met with the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) requesting the FTC to clarify warranty policies so that consumers would not incorrectly believe that recycled OEM parts in a repair could void their warranty. As a result, the FTC announced the update of a consumer alert, Auto Warranties, Routine Maintenance, and Repairs: Is Using the Dealer a Must? The revised alert specifically notes that the use of recycled OEM parts does not void a warranty and that it is illegal for warrantors to void a warranty or deny coverage simply because a recycled OEM part was used.

More information:

Automotive Recyclers Association

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