I've read that if you show google legal docs showing your claims, they will remove things like this.
Best of luck. It's difficult to have assumptions made by others without having all the facts. Can make life very hard and you can't do anything about it. It's just out there forever without any chance for redemption.
Maybe see if google will contact the op and see if they would be willing to help. It can't hurt to ask.
Even if it's true somewhat or not- some things don't belong online.

I keep receiving calls from this number with a recorded voice about a warranty on a car I don't have. I keep pushing the button to stop receiving the calls but it never happens.

November 18, 2010 10:48 a.m.

This is the final warning that the warranty on your vehicle is about to...*click*

"Should" be over. Finally.

UPI reports, "The Federal Trade Commission announced Friday that a U.S. District Court in Chicago issued a restraining order demanding that three companies accused of aggressively making automated calls to sell auto warranties across the country cease the pitches."

USA Today adds, "The Federal Trade Commission has received 30,000 complaints about this unsolicited robocall pitch." The three companies reportedly "made as many as 1.8 million calls each day in violation of Do Not Call regulations." The FTC claims that the companies "evidently dialed every number in a given area code."

FTC attorney Steve Baker told MSNBC, "We think they were just dialing every phone number in the U.S. more or less in order." The companies "even called Secret Service offices and 911 dispatchers."

The New York Times reports, "Once on the line, recipients were misled into believing that they were extending their original vehicle warranty for $2,000 or $3,000 with a company affiliated with the dealer or manufacturer of their car."

The scam worked. The Times reports, "The seller took in more than $10 million as a result of the calls, as well as related mailings, according to the commission."

Our hero in this case is Judge John F. Grady of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.

The villains should be named as well. Consumerist reports that Grady, "Issued a temporary restraining order against Voice Touch, as well as a business partner, Network Foundations, from making further calls. He also issued a separate temporary restraining order" against Transcontinental Warranty, Inc. "Also named in the restraining orders are Christopher D. Cowart, the owner of Transcontinental; James and Maureen Dunne, the owners of Voice Touch; and Damian Kohlfeld, an owner of Network Foundations."

There is even hope that some of those bilked in the scheme could get some money back. The AP notes, "Besides ordering a halt to the automatic telephone sales calls, Grady's order froze the assets of the two companies. The FTC alleged in its complaints that the calls were part of a deceptive scheme and asked the court to assure the assets will not be lost in case they might be needed to repay consumers who have been victimized."

If you're in the market for a new car, check out the U.S. News rankings of this year's best cars as well as this month's best car deals.

f you're one of the millions of Americans being bombarded by those annoying car warranty extension scam calls, you can send a little kudos Verizon's way this week. Verizon Wireless put a dent in the scam's operational firepower by filing lawsuits against several of the operators, in some cases donating settlement rewards to charity. $50,000 in settlement money (which seems insanely light given the nature of their scam) won in a case against National Auto Warranty Services and Explicit Media was donated to the Joyful Heart Foundation, an organization tasked with helping victims of sexual assault, child abuse, and domestic violence. According to Verizon, the companies were spoofing their originating numbers and using auto-dialers, violating the Federal Telephone Consumer Protection Act.

Andrea Allen purchased a used 1999 Ford Windstar at a Toyota dealership in Puyallup about three years ago. It came with a one-year warranty from the manufacturer. So she was surprised when she recently started receiving daily phone calls, saying her warranty is about to expire and offering to sell her a new one. Allen says the callers refuse to identify the company they work for. In some cases, the voice on the other end is a computer recording; in others, a person begins by asking her to confirm the make and model of her car. Allen says she immediately asks to speak with a supervisor or be taken off the calling list, at which point the caller usually hangs up. Another call comes within a day or two.


An advisory from Burien Toyota.
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More About
Andrea AllenMarcella KallmannBetter Business BureauProduct GuaranteesConsumer Protection
"I've begged, I've pleaded, and I've yelled [for them to stop calling] and still nothing," she says. "They call right at bedtime, waking my children. I am so sick of them."

It may be more than an annoyance. Allen is likely the target of a scam that began to hit Washington a few weeks ago. According to Marcella Kallmann, spokesperson for the Better Business Bureau of Alaska, Oregon, and Western Washington, scam artists are calling, or mailing postcards to, drivers telling them their car's warranty is about to expire and offering an extended warranty. It's unclear whether the object is to collect money for a bogus service or to simply steal the driver's identity, or both. The calling has become so widespread, one of Kallmann's colleagues was even contacted at work with a car warranty offer. When informed that she had reached the Better Business Bureau, Kallmann says, "the person on the other end basically paused for a long time."

The sale of extended car warranties is a legitimate business, but Kallmann believes the current wave of solicitations has the earmarks of a scam in part because when the recipient of a call requests a supervisor, they are either told no such person is available or the caller hangs up. There is also the harassing nature of the calls, Kallmann says. People lodging complaints with the Bureau's Seattle location say they have received solicitations as early as 3 a.m. and as late as 10 p.m.

Kallmann says the Bureau isn't sure if the calls are coming from one place or several. Some of them are just computer recordings, Kallmann says, and often include an option to get off the calling list by giving a little bit of information. It's better to just hang up, she says, even if the calls continue.

Ted Klarich, general manager of Burien Toyota, says warranty solicitations include accurate information about the customers and their cars?such as the model and make of the car they recently purchased?which leads customers to assume he sold sales information to solicitors. And they aren't happy about it. But Klarich insists that the only people who receive registration data from him are the Toyota corporate office and the state Department of Licensing. He adds that it's become such a problem, he used up valuable space in his recent mailer, called "Inside Edge," to warn customers about the scam. "It was so frustrating to watch," he says.

So, where are the scammers getting personal car data? The Department of Licensing only gives out registration information to certain companies, and never for product solicitation, according to DOL spokesperson Brad Benfield. Parking lot operators, for instance, can use the info to ticket violators. Credit agencies and insurance companies also have access, as do data miners that provide market information to carmakers and dealers.

The DOL currently has contracts with about 140 banks, lenders, and other agencies to provide all new-registration information on a regular basis. Benfield says these recipients are bound by the same state laws disallowing use of the information for solicitation or selling it to others who will use it for that purpose. But, he adds, in light of the current surge of calls from solicitors, the DOL is reviewing all the contracts.

Figuring out who is behind the calls is difficult. The numbers showing up on Allen's caller ID are located across the country; recently Georgia, New Jersey, Michigan, and Colorado area codes have popped up. Allen began looking up the numbers on Web sites like www.whocalled.us and found other people reporting similar problems from solicitors calling from the same numbers. I called back all the ones still stored in Allen's caller ID. One led to a busy signal, another to a subprime mortgage lender that asked me to leave a message. Two went to a service that began by offering me the option to push 2 to be removed from their calling list. That, Kallmann warns, is the hallmark of a "vishing" scam, or identity theft by phone.

Thomas Boulanger purchased a 1996 Camry from Burien Toyota (his employer) last November. He didn't bother with a warranty because of the car's age, but last week, two months after he bought the car, a postcard including information about the make and model of his car arrived. The return address was listed as Auto One Warranty.

LOL, nice post you stalker. The court-awarded restraining order I have is against the person who posted this junk. She's just trying to hurt me and my family. I have no law suits against me, no harassment, no FCC violations and I even try to do the right thing every day. Thanks for stopping by and reading this fine material. Be well good people. Come stop by and visit me on Wellness(dot)com.

"Expiring" Warranty Scams:

Existing laws are not much of a deterrent and the lawsuits are merely a cost of doing business. But a group of auto warranty finance companies think they have a better way to stop the pre-recorded phone calls and misleading postcards: banding together and refusing to do business with the scammers.

By now, virtually every daily newspaper and every TV news program has run at least one story in the past year about the so-called "auto warranty scam" where pre-recorded voice messages or mass-mailed postcards carry the dire warning that "your warranty is about to expire."

The pre-recorded messages, also known as "robocalls" or "voice blasting," have worried thousands of people who pay thousands of dollars each to make sure their vehicle's extended warranty coverage remains current. But thousands of others who had placed their phone numbers onto a federal Do Not Call list are angry because they can't get the companies to stop calling them. And they're complaining.

Some of the worst offenders buy blocks of numbers that spoof Caller ID services into misidentifying the source of their unwelcome auto warranty solicitations. And when consumers taken in by the urgency of the pitch try to cancel the policies they bought under pressure, refunds are usually slow, partial, or are not delivered at all.

The postcards usually carry in bold letters a heading such as "Ford Notification" or "Volkswagen Notification," and the message that "your warranty is about to expire," leading some recipients to believe the sender is somehow linked to the dealer that sold them the vehicle or to the manufacturer that made it. They call their auto dealer to complain, who tell them to call their local consumer affairs agency.

Source of the Problem?

Some say the culprits are located in Florida, New Jersey, New York, or California, while others point to St. Louis, Missouri, as the hub for telemarketing companies selling vehicle service contracts via postcard or phone calls. At least 41 state attorneys general have launched investigations or filed lawsuits, and several states are considering legislation to outlaw the abusive practices.

Years ago, many of the principals of the current industry used to work at one St. Louis-based telemarketing company called Consumer Automotive Consultants LLC. Then they left the company to start their own telemarketing operations, so there are now several call centers in the area specializing in vehicle service contract sales. Is it them making the calls? At least two have denied it categorically, and nobody has been able to prove otherwise.

The problem is that the good companies are being swept up with the bad, and because the good companies are identifying themselves accurately and allowing consumers to opt out of receiving their messages, frankly they're easier to catch. In addition, when the fines are levied, they won't always stop with the sales agents. They may come after the administrators, finance companies, and insurance companies as well.

The trouble with the thought of new laws is, most of these abusive practices are technically already outlawed. Under terms of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, Direct marketers must identify themselves, and must give consumers an opportunity to opt out. The Federal Trade Commission operates a National Do Not Call Registry where consumers can put their phone numbers on a list that telemarketers must observe.

Do Not Call Do Not Work

The problem is, if you'll forgive the bad grammar, is the www.donotcall.gov Web site do not work, and even if it did, the list would only be meaningful if there was more vigorous federal enforcement. And because there's not, it's fallen to the state attorneys general and their consumer protection agencies to do what they can to stop the abuses.

In March, Missouri Attorney General Jay Nixon launched "Operation Taken for a Ride," taking legal action against several of the businesses that allegedly used misrepresentation and deception to sell motor vehicle extended service contracts to consumers. AG Nixon filed suit against Vehicle Services Inc.; TXEN Partners, doing business as Service Protection Direct; United Warranty Solutions LLC; Dealer Warranty Services; Certified Auto Warranty Services Inc.; National Dealers Warranty Inc.; National Auto Warranty Services Inc.; and Smart Choice Protection LLC, doing business as Direct Dealer Warranties. He also announced settlements with Carhill Enterprises Inc., doing business as Consumer Protection Services; and Warranty Activation Headquarters; each of which gave the AG their assurances of voluntary compliance with the law.

"It?s rather insidious how these companies prey upon consumers? fears, sending misleading letters informing them that their current motor vehicle warranties were about to expire, when in fact many of the consumers possessed factory warranties that wouldn?t expire for several months," the attorney general said in a press statement. "That was the hook to sell these consumers unneeded motor vehicle extended service contracts for hundreds or thousands of dollars. When consumers canceled the contracts, many received only a partial refund or no refund at all."

New Sheriff in Town

Last week, the Renaissance Hotel near the St. Louis Airport was the scene of a meeting where the finance companies that administer the extended warranties told their sales agent partners that they'll soon have another worry in addition to new laws and lawsuits. Beginning in just a few weeks, any direct marketers that have not agreed to follow a newly-drafted code of conduct will be cut off from their source of financing. By September 15, all telemarketing companies who work with the finance companies will need to have signed an affidavit that they will not operate illegal voice blasting operations.

The meeting was also the official public kickoff of the Automotive Warranty Services Association, which will publish the new code of conduct, get the direct marketers to sign it, and turn in those who break their promises. While it's highly unlikely that the worst offenders would join the group, most of the finance companies they work with already have, and they've set their deadline.


Some of the direct marketing companies who attended the August 6 meeting immediately pledged their full support. Joe DiMartini, owner of Service Protection Direct and co-chair of the AWSA's enforcement and certification committee, said he was very much in favor of the industry self-regulation plans outlined in St. Louis. He said that ever since the aggressive and misleading outbound calling started about a year ago, he's been warning people that it will turn out to be a "very, very, bad thing for our industry," he told Warranty Week. "Every day is a ticking time bomb," he added, so any move to make it stop as soon as possible has his backing.

"I thought it was very positive that as a group we were all pushing for self-regulation in order to give a better impression to the market about our industry," DiMartini said. "And I thought it was very good that most of the companies involved were on board with making changes in the industry." He said what struck him the most was the way that natural competitors could set aside their differences in order to clean up their industry before the government does.

Crime Does Pay?

The sad truth is that the bad actors that are drawing all the unwanted attention to the industry in the first place are probably two or three times more profitable than those that follow the law, DiMartini estimated. And he said he thinks some of them have already figured the inevitable fines into their business plans, calculating that they'll still be ahead of their law-abiding competitors. But what scares both the scammers and the good guys is the prospect that they might now be legislated completely out of existence because it's gone too far.

"The reality is that a lot of those guys are just not educated enough to understand what the rules are," DiMartini said. He estimated that if there were 40 or so telemarketers in the room last week, roughly a third of them were not making outbound phone calls to begin with, including his company. And of those that were, perhaps only four or five of them were in flagrant violation of the law. "But they have to be weeded out," he added. "They are either going to have to comply with the rules of the group, or they'll have to go. And, quite frankly, the association is going to turn them in for not complying."

Helen MacMurray, a partner in the law firm of MacMurray, Cook, Petersen & Shuster, is going to be the public face of the AWSA's industry cleanup effort. She's been appointed as legal advisor for the AWSA, and has already spent most of the summer putting together the plans that are now unfolding.

During her presentation at last week's meeting, MacMurray delivered a tough message to the attendees: either self-regulate or be put out of business by 41 very angry state AGs who are now logging thousands of complaints.


"What we did at the meeting was outline for them all the illegal activities that the industry was engaging in, and then I outlined all of the current investigations and lawsuits, and then I provided to them several examples of how different industries did not clean up themselves, and were put out of business -- the industry as a whole," she said.

For instance, she told attendees how the Ohio legislature recently passed laws that made it very difficult for payday loan companies to remain in business in the state. "Wiped them out," MacMurray said. And they did so after a rising chorus of complaints made it difficult for the legislators to ignore the problem. Unable or unwilling to fix their own problems, the industry was basically run out of town. So it's not just lawsuits and fines the warranty telemarketers need to be concerned about, she said. They could find themselves legislated out of business.

MacMurray said she's seen "blatant violation of all the federal and state telemarketing laws" by some of the call centers selling vehicle service contracts. They're calling people on the Do Not Call list, and they're "voice blasting" a pre-recorded message to them, without first seeking their express advanced permission to receive such messages, as is now required under Title 47 Section 227 United States Code. They have no prior business relationship with the prospect, and in some cases they're using bogus Caller ID codes to disguise their true location. Some even claim to be working for the dealer or the manufacturer.

Canning the Spammers

On the Internet it's the spammers that caused all the problems, and there's been no solution, despite laws and lawsuits aplenty. The amount of spam has become so great that it practically crowds out all the legitimate messaging. And not only aren't the laws not working, but also the technical means such as content filtering are blocking some of the legitimate email and not all of the spam. So what makes MacMurray think the voice blasters and postcard mailers are going to stop, just because the AWSA says so?

"If they're truly selling a product, then they have to be financed," she said. "I have all of the finance companies joining the association. So now the deal is you either comply with the laws, or none of the finance companies will finance you." If any voice blasters have a problem with that new policy, well, maybe they can complain to one of the attorneys general.

Over the past 15 years or so, MacMurray has been on both sides of consumer protection. So she knows how the system works. In the 1990s, she served as the chief of the consumer protection section under Ohio Attorney General Betty Montgomery (who was in office from 1995 to 2003), and chaired the national committee of state AG's consumer protection agencies. Some of the cases she prosecuted in the 1990s were extended warranty related.

In 2000, MacMurray left government to enter private practice, handling defense work in some class action auto extended warranty marketing cases, among other things. Her three other named partners also worked for AG Montgomery: Brian Cook, Shaun Petersen, and Michele Shuster. And then after Montgomery herself left office in 2003, she joined the firm as well.

MacMurray has been on the "Super Lawyers" list in Ohio for the last five years, and she's one of only five on the state's list that specialize in consumer law. She was a founding member of the Teleservices Ethics Committee at the Direct Marketing Association. And she's been on all the major TV news shows to offer her take on regulatory issues that affect consumers.

MacMurray also counts as clients several of the vehicle service contract finance companies that administer the policies the telemarketing companies sell. These are the finance companies that want to clean up the industry before the states legislate or fine them out of business for the actions of their independent sales agents. Their big fear is that when it comes time to pay the fines, they'll be the easiest to find.

Code of Conduct Expected

The AWSA proposes to create a standard code of conduct and a list of best practices that, with the finance companies' backing, will be adhered to by all the vehicle service contract sales agents and telemarketers that they deal with.

"They asked me to put that together," MacMurray said, "so I drafted some bylaws for an association, and some best practices, and I pitched that to them." They liked it, and the AWSA was born.

The AWSA's initial board of directors consists of Rebecca Howard from Warranty Finance LLC as the board president; Scott McMillan from Mepco Finance Corp. as the vice president; Carter Patterson from Forte Data Systems Inc. as the secretary and treasurer; as well as Marcy Johnson from Summit Finance Inc. and Matthew Weil from American Guardian Warranty Services Inc. as additional board members.

First-year dues will be $5,000 per companies and $1,000 for consultants and independent reps. The AWSA is officially a 501(c)(6) trade organization, a not for profit allowed to form to pursue a common business interest. This type of group is exempt from most federal income taxes, and membership dues paid by those companies that join are tax deductible as business expenses. They don't need to reveal the names of member or donor companies, but the group is not allowed to engage in political activity on behalf of a candidate or a cause. That's the domain of a 501(c)(4) organization.

Were the AWSA to engage in lobbying activities, those expenses would not be deductible and the group would have to tell members what percentage of their dues was tax deductible. Most chambers of commerce and trade associations are 501(c)(6) organizations, as is, surprisingly, the National Football League, which initially came together in 1920 as the American Professional Football Conference to draft rules regarding when college players could go pro and how the pros could change teams.

The AWSA's Mission Statement

The AWSA's mission statement is "to promote regulatory education, compliance and stability for marketing and servicing of extended automotive warranties. It promotes self regulation as a superior alternative to government imposed requirements."

Its stated purpose is "to promote regulatory education and compliance for the marketing and servicing of extended automotive warranties. This organization is dedicated to helping the members provide the best service to their clients and consumers. The organization will stand as a centralized location for consistency within the industry. Along with education and training, the goal is for the members to take what they learn and implement the practices into their own companies."

Within a matter of months, the AWSA's programs will include:

Industry Best Practices,
Compliance Manual,
Certification of Companies, and a
Consumer Advisory Board.
The AWSA also has formed two committees: an enforcement and certification committee, and a best practices committee. For the enforcement and certification committee, the three co-chairs are Joe DiMartini of Service Protection Direct; Andrew Hillin from Summit Financial; and Chris Shoemaker from Warranty Activation Headquarters. Matthew Weil from American Guardian Warranty is the board liaison. For the best practices committee, Marcy Johnson from Summit Finance and Ralph Carrillo from MEPCO are the co-chairs.

The enforcement and certification committee, as its name implies, will have the power to investigate alleged offenders, to certify current members as compliant, and to direct the finance companies to cut off those who are not. The best practices committee will edit the draft document that MacMurray has created, with a goal of finishing it by October 1 and presenting it to the membership. The certification committee plans to begin certifying members as compliant as early as December 1.

Time Is of the Essence

"We're running out of time. If we don't move quickly, the industry's going to be shut down. So that's why we're on such a quick timetable," MacMurray said.

MacMurray said once the finance companies get the direct marketers to stop voice blasting and misrepresenting themselves, the AWSA will make a package of state and federal regulations and compliance data that will become a perk of membership. "That could cost a fortune" if members had to hire their own researcher to do it, she said, "tens of thousands of dollars. I'm going to do this for the association, and then the association will share all of this information with its members."

Besides a good lawyer, any good association also needs a good executive director, and it just so happened that MacMurray knew a guy who helped launch an auto repair trade association under similar circumstances 15 years ago, who was looking for a new opportunity. Larry Hecker helped form the Automotive Maintenance and Repair Association, a group that came together in 1992 to self-police that industry before the government did. So they reached out to him and he became the AWSA's executive director on July 1.

Hecker said one of the things the AMRA did in its early years was put together the Motorists Assurance Program as a way to curb allegedly aggressive selling by repair shops. Sound familiar? At the time, attorneys general were sending investigators into repair shops with cars that had identical problems, but they were coming out with wildly different diagnoses and cost estimates. So the AMRA created a code of ethics and a Uniform Inspection & Communications Standard that outlined procedures repair shops had to follow before making a repair recommendation to customers.

Then the AMRA began an accreditation process that was supported by the big chains, the small independents, the carmakers, and the parts manufacturers. Hecker estimates that at its peak in 2004 or 2005, at least 8,000 repair outlets were MAP certified. More importantly, by then the relative number of complaints regarding auto repairs had begun to drop.

The attorneys general turned their attention elsewhere, to other problems. Self-regulation worked.

Do the Right Thing

Hecker said he thinks it might also work in this case. "Most of the members of the industry are trying to do the right thing, and they're offended by the small minority who are not," he said. "And they're getting swept up in the actions by the attorneys general and the consumer protection folks around the country."

There are of course other industry associations with a stake in the automotive warranty space. But there doesn't seem to be a good match for what the AWSA wants to do in any of them. Hecker said the Service Contract Industry Council was not focusing on activities such as member certification or best practices, and the Institute of Warranty Chain Management was not focusing on the automotive extended warranty telemarketing business. The Vehicle Service Contract Administrators Conference is a trade show, not an association. And the Automotive Industry Action Group is more focused on manufacturing than on marketing. So there wasn't really an existing group that the warranty finance companies could join to achieve their goal.

"If an organization wants to set some kind of standard and best practices for the direct marketing side and the finance side, then there needs to be a new group, considering that none of the existing groups encompass that membership," Hecker said. Plus, he suggested, "organizations generally don't like to take on new roles that are peripheral to their main focus." But he added that he anticipates conversations between the AWSA and each of these warranty-related groups, as well as many others.

Future Plans?

"Specialty groups like this definitely serve a need," Hecker said. "They get a group or an industry together. They solve a problem. Then they either go on, like the Automotive Maintenance and Repair Association, or they go dormant," he said, like a group he once helped form that worked for a year and a half on safety standards for automotive air conditioning repairs. Or, the group could achieve its goal and then stick around to monitor compliance and maintain their standards.

"The issue is that there a lot of attorneys general and other consumer protection folks who are going after the industry," Hecker said. And both laws and lawsuits are likely before year's end if there's no solution to the problem. "Helen's job and my job will be to ask them to hold off until the industry gets its act together and comes up with a self-regulating, self-enforcing, self-policing type of program. And assuming they're satisfied with it, then hopefully they'll back off."

Readers who wish to contact the AWSA should email Larry Hecker at larry@warrantybestpractices.com or call +1 (302) 524-1150.

See You In September

Is it almost the end of summer already? Warranty Week will be closed for summer holidays until the end of this month. Our next newsletter will be published on September 3. For anyone else traveling to a shady spot for a bit of vacation in the weeks ahead, have a safe trip!

My companies don?t ever do telemarketing and we do not spam either. I am an internet marketing guy--I use strategies that are ethical, responsible and sometimes profitable too. You can?t pay me to buy, sell, or generate telemarketing leads for any industry. There are plenty of healthy ways to make money in business---without legal or illegal telemarketing & spam.

Hire me to generate leads using effective search engine optimization strategies or I?ll build you a great website---I won?t do telemarketing ever. I feel like car warranty telemarketers operate like the lowest form of scum on the earth. IMO, they are like sex offenders, drug dealers and porn operators with no regard to how their industry effects people. Do we blame the telemarketer or the buyer of the lead (Warranty companies)? I would think both need to be accountable to this problem.

These huge auto warranty companies keep buying telemarketing leads from these huge lead generation operations. I have personally met one of the largest lead suppliers to the warranty business and they generate leads using infomercial-style advertising. While, infomercials and commercials are super annoying you can?t blame a company for advertising through normal channels. You can blame a company for telemarketing. I don?t see any other way to put it.

Unsolicited telemarketing is a premeditated violation of someone?s valuable time. Same goes for email spammers. I?ve seen stats that suggest as much as 90% of the email in North America is spam. That costs the country billions of dollars in wasted resources powering millions of email servers, and using expensive bandwidth. In an ISP, entire departments are maintained to deal with spam. The ?greatest violation? is of people?s time which I?ve got to believe will eventually be seen as criminal in this country.

I should probably specify that I don?t have a huge problem with one sales person calling a prospect with a really special local offer. But, when you add up all the not-so-special offers and expand the problem nationally, how can you get anything done? It is a serious problem. Organized rooms of telemarketers are incapable of being sensitive to people?s privacy or time. These operations offer commission-based incentives to super aggressive phone sales people. Not cool.

I put together a little website on a domain we are selling for a client called http://www.warranties.com. We added Google?s normal banner ads to the site to hopefully make a few bucks in the meantime before we sell it. If you look at the ads that Google matches up on the site, you can see who is buying these leads. These are the same type of companies I would imagine are buying from the telemarketing companies.

Here?s the deal, people need to complain about the offenders to their phone company, to the Attorney General, the FCC and the FTC. I think even the FBI is trying to crack down on these operations now too. Why is it so hard to catch them? It is because they illegally mask the phone number that they are calling from. Still, it shouldn?t be that hard to catch them. For a couple months my phone rang off the hook from people who thought I was calling them because the jack*** telemarketers would say they are calling from warranties.com why people pressed them for information. I finally got so pissed off I just decided to put up a message board on warranties.com in January to see if we can gather actual valuable information and definitely some evidence against these warranty telemarketing people. Look who is buying ads from Google on this site. That?s big money flowing through that industry. Should be some good fines the officials can get out of those companies---you would think.

And contrary to what some folks posted, it is not me and I don?t hide on the internet LOL... I?m all over the internet. Website development and search engine optimization is what I do for a living and my mobile phone number and email address is posted on a dozen websites.

Really, how do the authorities catch these companies? I think it would not be hard knowing what we all know. Here?s a basic concept for catching them. Not sure what the legalities of this are, but it doesn?t seem too hard.

How to catch an auto warranty telemarketing operation in the illegal act:

Get a number of consumer complaints (that shouldn?t be hard)
Legally demand they give up their lead sources
Find the ones with telemarketing operations
Legally demand phone calling records
Compare call records with the phone company?s ANI (automatic number identification) records.
Put the offenders in jail.

What?s so hard about that? What am I missing?

JV

John Valenty of Earnware.com has so many companies. eventwaycom.com, supercross.com, wellness.com, natrallysavvy.com. untitedvoice.com he sells 800 numbers online.

Diversified Enterprises is a private fund focused on attracting, incubating and growing some of the most unique and valuable web properties in the world.

 
Through its synergistic holdings, the company provides the essential expertise and resources needed to develop promising websites into thriving web businesses.

 
Earnware Corporation serves as the home base and primary infrastructure supporting Diversified Enterprises and its member companies.

John Valenty CEO
Rob Greenstein PRESIDENT
David Pohl CHAIRMAN

these guys have so many .coms they're hiding behind.

This sounds like his other companies are selling leads to these telemarketers according to online articles like the one below. I would say Valenty knows who the company is... his own? Hmm.  

Building Internet Service Communities - Supportgate.com - [Cached Version]
Published on: 11/25/2000    Last Visited: 8/30/2002  
EARNWARE Corporation was founded by John Valenty. Mr. Valenty is renowned for pioneering prospecting and lead generation activities.

This is John Valenty here? my contact information and my companies are easily connectable and all out in the open. The criminals who are illegally calling all of us will not identify themselves and are using Warranties.com as a cover when we try to find out who they are. So, somehow, someway, we need to find out who this company is generating leads for and go after them. If anyone can help, please reach me at john@earnware.com or 800-800-8650. My direct mobile number is 760-522-1221. If you have any information who the real company is behind this illegal telemarketing, please let me know right away.

This John Valenty has numerous law suits filed against him from wrongful termination, sexual harrassment, the FCC for direct mail scams and I even found a domestic violence restraining order! This is all in the San Diego County court records. Sounds like real good guy?

He seems to be this multi level marketing guru that made his millions selling snake oil back in the ?90?s and is now making his money doing this and who knows what else. It seems this Rob Greenstein guy is a multi level marketer (downline from Valenty) too and David Pohl is his father -in-law!!

In additon to the other phone numbers, this was given to me as well.
John Valenty: 760-522-1221

Corporate Offices:
6451 El Camino Real
Suite A
Carlsbad, CA 92009

Car warranty try:
Diversified Enterprises. http://www.diversifiedenterprises.com/index.php/management  
John Valenty CEO ? Email: john@diversifiedenterprises.com phone: (800) 800-8650
David Pohl CHAIRMAN ? Email: david@diversifiedenterprises.com

Rob Greenstein PRESIDENT ? Email: rob@diversifiedenterprises.com phone: (800) 800-8640     (800)939-3906   Cell: (760)522-1269

Caller ID: CNP Computers I
Phone Number: 954-968-2244

Recorded male voice telling me he has an important message concerning the warranty on my car... a warranty that is impossible for my car to have, being as it is rebuilt.

Ditto. Received 5 different calls from area code 954 with the "default message" (male, foreign accent) from 4 different companies:

CNP Computers
FLJ Computers
K and D Computers
Wellington Auto

Ditto.

Have called several times.  A man's voice says "default message" to the answering machine.