Good news! This annoying type of scam call was just banned
“Hi! We’ve been trying to reach you about your car’s extended warranty.”
If you’ve ever received a call like that, you’re far from alone. The good news is you might not have to deal with them moving forward, thanks to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and a new ruling that’s expected to free the public from this nuisance.
It’s estimated that, on average, consumers lose up to $30 billion to phone scams annually. Keep reading to see how the court order may impact your daily life.
Is car warranty spam calls a thing of the past?
Just last week, the American Vehicle Protection Corporation (AVP), CG3 Solutions, and Tony Gonzalez Consulting Group were implicated and charged for orchestrating spam callers inquiring about consumers and their extended car warranties.
This court order outlines a series of proposed adjustments to how the law regards and reckons with outbound telemarketing calls in this sector.
Specifically, it targets the “advertising, marketing, promoting, offering for sale, or selling, of extended automobile warranties and vehicle service agreements” that these criminals try to hawk to ordinary people.
This limits the types of calls they may legally “initiate” and the types of business dealings they engage in with organizations that transgress this restriction. As one of the top five scam calls plaguing American phones, this is a sight for sore eyes.
Third parties won’t be able to impersonate car companies or government entities they claim to represent during these calls. They also won’t be able to intimidate car owners with threats of warranty cancellation, exchange or repurpose.
Hopefully, these plans will help consumers recognize scams of this nature before it’s already too late for retribution. The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida is demanding a total payout of $6,500,000 from the defendants. If successful, this judgment sends a clear message to spam callers trying to dupe victims elsewhere.
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