The State Attorney General’s Office filed lawsuits Wednesday against four telemarketers for allegedly making repeated solicitation calls in violation of North Carolina’s Do Not Call Registry.
Named in the lawsuits filed in Wake County Superior Court were National Event Coordinators (NEC) of Orlando, Fla.; Warrior Custom Golf of Irvine, Calif.; Debt Management Foundation Services of Largo, Fla.; and Consumer Credit Counseling Foundation of Orlando, Fla. The lawsuits seek to force the companies to comply with the law and to pay $500 for the first violation, $1,000 for the second, and $5,000 for additional violations.
“Some telemarketers out there refuse to respect consumers’ wishes not to be called,” Attorney General Roy Cooper said in a press release. “We warned telemarketers to follow the law and stop calling North Carolina numbers on the Registry or face us in court. Now, they know we mean business.”
Wake County Superior Court Judge Narley Cashwell also granted Cooper’s request to temporarily bar NEC and Warrior Custom Golf from making sales calls in North Carolina until they comply with the Do Not Call law. Both companies refused to respond to earlier letters from the Attorney General’s Office informing them that they were breaking the law and could face legal action.
Cooper’s office received 60 written complaints from North Carolinians who got calls from NEC even though their numbers were listed in the registry. As alleged in the complaint, NEC also violated state law by using automatic dialing machines to make a prerecorded pitch about seminars on home-based businesses.
Consumers who received the calls reported that they were unable to disconnect by simply hanging up their phones and were instead forced to listen to a lengthy message. Those who endured the entire message and called to be removed from NEC’s call list were then told to call another long-distance number.
Debt Management Foundation and Consumer Credit Counseling Foundation also broke the law by autodialing consumers and playing a recording about debt consolidation services, two other lawsuits say. Cooper’s office received 44 consumer complaints about Debt Management Foundation and 15 complaints about Consumer Credit Counseling Foundation, which claim nonprofit exemption from Do Not Call restrictions. Unlike federal Do Not Call protections, North Carolina’s law forbids the use of autodialers and prerecorded messages by nonprofits as well as commercial telemarketers if the messages are not introduced by a live operator who asks for permission to play the prerecorded pitch.
In another case, Cooper also announced a settlement agreement with Optimum Mortgage Group of Charlotte. Optimum Mortgage agreed to comply with the Do Not Call law by removing numbers on the registry from its call list and paying the state $5,000. The Attorney General’s Office received seven complaints against Optimum.
In recent weeks, Cooper’s Do Not Call Enforcement Team has received an average of 150 complaints per week from consumers who signed up for the registry but were still receiving telemarketing calls. Cooper’s office is investigating the complaints and has written to 117 companies in response to possible violations of the law.
Consumers who placed their numbers on the Do Not Call list before Aug. 31 can report telemarketers who call them to Cooper’s office by calling 1-877-566-7226 toll-free within the state or by going to www.nocallsnc.com to download a complaint form. Consumers who have signed up for the registry since Aug. 31 can file a complaint once they have been listed in the registry for three months.
Nearly 1.75 million North Carolina numbers have been placed on the registry since it began in July. Telemarketers operating in the state should have stopped calling North Carolina numbers listed in the registry by Oct. 1. Consumers can continue to add their home and mobile telephone numbers to the list by going to www.nocallsnc.com or calling 1-888-382-1222 within North Carolina from the number they wish to register.
North Carolinians who join the registry are protected by both state and federal laws. The General Assembly enacted the state law this summer to protect North Carolina consumers from unwanted telemarketing calls regardless of the outcome of the telemarketers’ legal challenges to the national registry. North Carolina’s law also gives Cooper’s office the power to take action against telemarketers.
Richard Wagner is the editor of Carolina Journal.