AG Mark Herring Files Suit Against Roanoke Robocallers
RICHMOND (June 25, 2019) – Attorney General Mark R. Herring announced today he has filed suit against two Roanoke-based telemarketing companies, and Roanoke resident Bryant Cass, for illegal robocalling and deceptive sales practices. The Complaint, filed in the United States District Court for the Western District of Virginia in Roanoke, alleges Cass, and his companies, Adventis, Inc. and Skyline Metrics, LLC, made hundreds of thousands of unsolicited robocalls nationwide pitching car selling services to people who listed cars for sale on Craigslist, Autotrader.com, or similar sites.
“Robocalls have become something that Virginians have to deal with on almost a daily basis,” said Attorney General Herring. “While robocalls are extremely annoying, they can also be dangerous and could potentially scam Virginians out of hundreds if not thousands of dollars. My team and I will continue to do everything we can to protect consumers and shut illegal robocall operations like this one down.”
In the Complaint, Attorney General Herring alleges the businesses used automated equipment to pull telephone numbers from websites, make hundreds of calls a day – even to numbers on the National Do Not Call Registry – and leave prerecorded voicemails in which Cass used fake names like “Peyton” or “Brian” to pitch car selling services for a “small fee” with a “money back guarantee.” If people called back, they reached a telemarketing boiler room in downtown Roanoke, where trained salespeople worked off a scripted pitch to make sales.
Under Virginia and federal telemarketing laws, those making illegal calls are subject to damages or civil penalties of $500 or more per call. The Complaint alleges that from 2014 to 2017 alone, Cass and his companies made 586,870 unsolicited telemarketing calls just to numbers with Virginia area codes.
Read more: https://bluevirginia.us/2019/06/ag-mark-herring-files-suit-against-roanoke-robocallers
