I just received a robo-call telling me that I should be aware of tea party activity protesting what our government is doing. The wording was harsher that that, but I don't remember it verbatim.
Either way, I believe this robo-call may have been illegal. Follow me below the fold for why.
This call did NOT identify what organization was making the call, or provide an FPPC (Fair Political Practices Commission) or FEC number.
According to Wikipedia:
The federal law requires all telephone calls using pre-recorded messages to identify who is initiating the calls and include a telephone number or address whereby the initiator can be reached.
Furthermore, I am in California, where California Public Utilities Commission Code sections 2874 requires:
- (a) Whenever telephone calls are placed through the use of an
automatic dialing-announcing device, the device may be operated only
after an unrecorded, natural voice announcement has been made to the
person called by the person calling. The announcement shall do all
of the following:
(1) State the nature of the call and the name, address, and
telephone number of the business or organization being represented,
if any.
(2) Inquire as to whether the person called consents to hear the
prerecorded message of the person calling.
(b) The calling person described in subdivision (a) shall
disconnect the automatic dialing-announcing device from the telephone
line upon the termination of the call by either the person calling
or the person called.
The recorded message started immediately with no live person, and there was no identification of where the call was coming from or who was associated with it.
My caller ID says the call came from OMNI OP and the number (402)982-0729
Further research led me to this page, where one of the entries down thread from commenter Det. K. Richter indicated the person behind the call is Tom Zoretich who:
does this for two companies, both of which he owns:
Opinion One
3340 Mall Loop Drive
Joliet, IL 60431-1057
(815) 254-****
***@OpinionOne.com
and
Keller Fay Group
65 Church Street, 3rd Floor
New Brunswick, NJ 08901
(732) 846-****
*********@kellerfay.com
He is willfully violating the National Do NOT Call law. Worse, he is the treasurer of the Marketing Research Association, which printed the following about fighting this law in its recent newsletter: "This past year, we engaged in a wide range of lobbying activities to educate legislators at both state and federal levels about the detrimental effects of the FTC’s revision of the National Do-Not-Call bill as it pertains to calls to cell phones."
Tom Zoretich
Board Treasurer
Marketing Research Association
***.********@mra-net.org
(860) 682-****
He also states:
BTW, he shares this auto-dialer [(402) 982-0729] with another scam market researcher (so you should report him too):
Michael Halberstam
Interviewing Service of America
15400 Sherman Way Ste. 400
Van Nuys, CA 91406
(818) 989-****
I added "*'s" to protect privacy, but the info is easy enough to look up.
If you know the legalities of this issue or have a similar experience, please post it here. I'd like to know who's at the bottom of these wignut robocalls and if there's really anything to to do about them.