Most Floridians and other Americans across the country know exactly how irritating a telemarketing phone call can be.
For starters, it’s unsolicited. Additionally, that incessant ringing seems intricately and purposefully timed for the dinner hour, when the family is a captive audience. Moreover, once that person starts talking on the other end, the scripted monologue cascades like rocks down a hill.
It’s no wonder that millions of people who make the mistake of picking up their phone eventually hang it up with angst and heightened blood pressure levels.
And that’s often the case even when they don’t bite on the product or service being hyped.
When they do, the occasional horror story truly does emerge, as can be readily seen from the details of a recent media article chronicling the tactics of a Florida debt relief company making so-called robocalls (automated communications) to out-of-state consumers.
The state in question was Arkansas, and a flood of complaints by consumers there led Dustin McDaniel, that state’s attorney general, to take legal action against a company called Associated Accounting Specialists Inc.
The reason: The company flatly lied on its promise that it could help consumers strapped by high credit card interest rates. It couldn’t, and McDaniel filed a federal lawsuit against it for deceptive advertising.
The judge overseeing the matter sided with Arkansas, barring Associated Accounting Specialists from owning and operating any debt relief service anywhere in the country. The court additionally demanded that the company and its owner pay $90,000 in civil penalties, plus legal fees and restitution for victims.
As we have noted many times in prior blog posts, debt relief can be a double-edged sword in that, while some of the companies purporting to help consumers are legitimate, a great many are not.
A proven bankruptcy attorney knows the law and the legal options available to financially struggling Americans and can answer questions and provide diligent representation that is truly in a client’s best interests.
That certainly beats the promises made in a robocall.
Source: Loansafe.org, “Florida company [sued] for offering phony credit card interest reduction services through robocalls,” Alex Ferreras, Jan. 3, 2014
