Are you sick and tired of those car warranty robocalls? You know, the folks that call five times a day whether you have a car or not? So is Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost. He joined forces with six other states and filed a lawsuit against two Texas businesses.
The companies in question called Ohioans 59 million times. Across America, they made billions of illegal robocalls.
The Calls Keep Coming
Americans get over 180 million robocalls every single day. That’s almost 8 million calls an hour. Overall most adult Americans get at least one call a day. Older folks often get called dozens of times a day. According to the federal government, half of those calls are flat-out scams.
Illegal Spoofing
The federal lawsuit said that two Texas companies were behind the shifty activity:
- Rising Eagle Capital Group LLC
- JSquared Telecom LLC
Yost’s new Robocall Enforcement Unit said that evidence proves the companies used ‘spoofing.’ Spoofing is an illegal trick favored by scammers. Crooks alter their caller IDs in order to make it look as if their call is coming from a local number or a legitimate business or government agency.
Keep ’em Coming
Yost said that Ohioans reported these companies to his Robocall Enforcement Unit dozens of times.
“Thanks to thousands of watchful Ohioans, we’re taking the fight to a source of these pestilent robocalls,”“Every call you report represents an important piece of evidence that can help us build cases like this one. Keep ‘em coming.”
There were seventy complaints about the two companies in question. Their owners John Spiller II and Jakob Mears were named in the lawsuit.
Do Not Call
If you thought putting your name on the Do Not Call Registry would stop these guys, think again. According to Attorney General Yost, these crooks actually targeted people on the Do Not Call Registry.
Ohio is joined by attorneys general from:
- Arkansas
- Indiana
- Michigan
- Missouri
- North Carolina
- Texas
The lawsuit claims Rising Eagle and JSquared violated the federal Telephone Consumer Protection Act and state consumer protection laws. The AGs filed the lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for Southern Texas.
States want civil penalties and a permanent injunction that stops those companies from continuing their illegal practices.
Report unwanted robocalls to the Robocall Enforcement Unit by texting “ROBO” to 888111, visiting OhioProtects.org, or calling 1-800-282-0515.
