Washington: The US has filed lawsuits against five companies and three individuals allegedly responsible for making hundreds of millions of fake robocalls to American consumers from abroad, mostly from India, and causing massive financial losses to the elderly and the vulnerable.
Seeking a restraining order against such call centres and robocalls, the department of justice in its class action lawsuit alleged that the companies were warned many times not to place fraudulent robocalls - including government and business imposter calls - yet they continued to do so and facilitated foreign-based fraud schemes targeting Americans.
“The calls, most of which originated in India, led to massive financial losses to elderly and vulnerable victims across the nation,” it said. The companies named in the suits include Tollfreedeals.com, Global Voicecom Inc, Global Telecommunication Services Inc and KAT Telecom Inc. The three individuals named were owners/operators of these firms — Nicholas Palumbo and Natasha Palumbo of Tollfreedeals and Jon Kahen of Global Voicecom Inc. The companies did not respond to requests for comment.
In each case, the department of justice sought an order immediately halting the defendants’ transmission of unlawful robocall traffic.“Robocalls are an annoyance to many Americans, and those that are fraudulent and predatory are a serious problem, often causing devastating financial harm to the elderly and vulnerable members of our society,” said assistant attorney general Jody Hunt for department of justice’s civil division.
Robocall frauds are a significant issue in US. In 2019, the Federal Trade Commission received nearly 400,000 complaints allegedly imposter fraud claims of $152.9 million, which the justice department said “substantially underestimates the extent” of fraud because many do not report losses.
Last month, US President Donald Trump signed a measure aimed at cracking down on the billions of irritating and deceptive robocalls that Americans receive.
