The government wants two Californian men to pay for those annoying automated calls about car warranties.
The Federal Communications Commission on Wednesday proposed a $300 million fine against the auto warranty robocall campaign, the largest penalty ever proposed by the agency for unwanted calls.
Roy Cox Jr. and Michael Aaron Jones – have been accused of operating the scheme through their company Sumco Panama and other companies. Over three months in 2021, more than 5 billion apparently illegal automated calls were made to more than half a billion phone numbers, “using recorded voice calls to urge consumers to consult with a ‘warranty specialist’ about warranty renewal or reinstatement of their car.”
An attorney for Cox did not immediately comment. An attorney for Jones could not be immediately identified.
“We will relentlessly pursue the groups behind these plans by restricting their access to US communications networks and holding them accountable for their behavior,” said Loyaan A. Egal, chief of the FCC Enforcement Bureau.
It was the latest government action targeting the robocall operation.
In July, Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost sued Cox and Jones and others for orchestrating an “unlawful and complex robocall scheme that at times bombarded consumers with more than 77 million robocalls per day to generate sales leads.” – often because of fraudulent car warranty extensions. Cox denied the allegations in a court filing.
The FCC found that under Federal Trade Commission action, both Jones and Cox are prohibited from making telemarketing calls.
In 2017, a US judge in California approved default judgments against Jones and nine companies the FTC accused of “running an operation that bombards consumers with billions of illegal telemarketing robocalls.”
The court permanently barred Jones and the companies from all telemarketing activities and imposed a $2.7 million fine.