Verizon Wireless files suit against telemarketers
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- March
- 27
Verizon Wireless said it is going to court to try and stop telemarketers who have made more than 2 million phone calls to its customers and employees this year.
In a lawsuit filed in New Jersey Superior Court, the company alleged that the telemarkers violated the Federal Telephone Consumer Protection Act that makes it illegal to use an autodialer to make calls to wireless phones. The suit also alleges that the calls violated fraud and privacy laws.
By filing the lawsuit, Verizon Wireless said the goal is to use the legal discovery process to help identify the unknown telemarketers, and make them stop the nuisance calls. The company said that the telemarketers used methods that hid their identities and the origin of the calls.
“Telemarketers are using increasingly sophisticated methods, such as illegal autodialing, to harass our customers,” Steven E. Zipperstein, vice president and general counsel of Verizon Wireless, said in a written statement. “Whatever the method, these unlawful telemarketing calls are an annoyance to our customers and invade their privacy, and we will continue to use every weapon in our legal arsenal to stop this activity and protect our customers.”
The calls in question involved Verizon Wireless customers and employees hearing a pre-recorded voice message indicating that the recipient’s car warranty was about to expire, and encouraging them to press “1” for more information. When recipients pressed “1”, they were connected to a person who asked for the make and model of the car. However, if the recipient asked for information about the company, the representative hung up and ended the call, according to Verizon Wireless.
Verizon Wireless, based in Basking Ridge, N.J., has 65.7 million customers nationally.
This entry was posted
on Thursday, March 27th, 2008 at 2:12 pm by Jay Loomis.
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