(COLUMBUS, Ohio)—Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine today announced that his office has joined the Federal Trade Commission and nine state attorneys general in an action against a Florida-based cruise line company and several other companies that assisted in a massive telemarketing campaign resulting in billions of robocalls.
The FTC and state partners allege that Caribbean Cruise Line and other related companies illegally sold cruise vacations using political survey robocalls that generated millions of dollars for the cruise line.
Although political survey robocalls are not banned under the FTC’s do-not-call and robocall rules, the defendants’ robocalls violated federal law because they incorporated a sales pitch for a cruise to the Bahamas.
“Consumers were told they could win a free cruise in exchange for participating in a quick political survey,” Attorney General DeWine said. “The problem with these calls was the sales pitch – callers can’t use robocalls to sell vacations or other consumer services. This is just one example of the many calls that frustrate consumers in Ohio and across the country, and we will continue our efforts to protect Ohioans from these and other illegal calls.”
According to the joint complaint filed by the FTC and the states, the defendants’ robocall campaign ran from October 2011 through July 2012 and averaged approximately 12 to 15 million illegal sales calls a day.
Consumers who answered these calls typically heard a prerecorded message supposedly from “John from Political Opinions of America,” who told them they had been “carefully selected” to participate in a 30-second research survey, after which they could “press one” to receive a two-day cruise to the Bahamas.
Consumers who completed the survey and pressed one for their cruise were connected to a live telemarketer working on behalf of Caribbean Cruise Line Inc. to market its cruise vacations. In addition to the cruise, these telemarketers also sold pre-boarding hotels, cruise excursions, enhanced accommodations, and other travel packages.
The complaint charges Caribbean Cruise Line with violating the FTC’s Telemarketing Sales Rule by using robocalls to sell cruise vacations. The complaint also alleges that two other companies, Linked Service Solutions LLC and Economic Strategy LLC, violated the Telemarketing Sales Rule by placing the robocalls that generated leads for Caribbean Cruise Line.
The complaint also charges a group of five interrelated companies, and their owner, Fred Accuardi, with assisting and facilitating the illegal cruise calls. The complaint alleges that these defendants provided robocallers with hundreds of telephone numbers to use when making calls, made it possible for robocallers to choose and change the names that would appear on consumers’ caller ID devices, and hid the robocallers’ identities from authorities.
In addition, the Accuardi defendants allegedly helped fund the robocallers by sharing fees generated by accessing caller ID names. The five companies charged with assisting and facilitating the robocall violations are: Telephone Management Corporation, T M Caller ID LLC, Pacific Telecom Communications Group, International Telephone Corporation, and International Telephone LLC.
The following defendants have agreed to court orders settling the charges against them:
- Caribbean Cruise Line
- Linked Service Solutions LLC and its owners, Scott Broomfield and Jason Birkett
- Economic Strategy LLC and its owner, Jacob deJongh
- Steve Hamilton (one of the owners of Pacific Telecom Communication Group)
The proposed settlement orders bar Caribbean Cruise Line and the other settling defendants from engaging in abusive telemarketing practices, including calling consumers whose phone numbers are on the Do Not Call Registry, calling anyone who has previously said they don’t want to be called again, failing to transmit accurate caller ID information, and placing illegal robocalls. The orders also require Caribbean Cruise Line to monitor its lead generators on an ongoing basis and Hamilton to terminate any clients placing telephone calls that would violate the Telemarketing Sales Rule.
The proposed settlement orders also impose: 1) a civil penalty of $7.73 million against Caribbean Cruise Line, which will be partially suspended after Caribbean Cruise Line pays $500,000; 2) a partially suspended civil penalty of $5 million against Linked Service Solutions and its owners, upon payment of $25,000; 3) A partially suspended civil penalty of $295,000 against Economic Strategy and its owner, upon the payment of $2,000; 4) and a partially suspended civil penalty of $750,000 against Steve Hamilton, one of the owners of Pacific Telecom Communication Group, upon payment of $2,000. The penalties are partially suspended based on the defendants’ inability to pay.
Litigation continues against Fred Accuardi and the five companies charged with assisting and facilitating the illegal conduct alleged in the complaint.
The FTC was joined in this action by the attorneys general of Colorado, Florida, Indiana, Kansas, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio, Tennessee, and Washington.
Ohio consumers can report telemarketing complaints to the Ohio Attorney General’s Office at www.OhioAttorneyGeneral.gov or by calling 800-282-0515.
-30-
Media Contacts
Dan Tierney: 614-466-3840
Kate Hanson: 614-466-3840