FTC and State Attorney Generals Coming After Lead Generators!

Yesterday, the Federal Trade Commission and more than 100 federal and state law enforcement agencies nationwide, including the attorney generals from all 50 states and the District of Columbia, announced “Operation Stop Scam Calls!” The investigations are targeting the telemarketers, the companies that hire them, and lead generators for deceptively collecting telephone numbers for robocallers. The key to the claims is consent to receive calls. The effort also targets Voice over Internet Protocol (“VoIP”) service providers who facilitate illegal robocalls every year, which often originate overseas. “We are taking action against those who trick people into phony consent to receive these calls and those who make it easy and cheap to place these calls,” said Samuel Levine, Director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection. “The FTC and its law enforcement partners will not rest in the fight against illegal telemarketing.”