Schumer, along with officials in 40 states and the Better Business Bureau, has targeted companies that have somehow managed to evade the Do Not Call registry, tie up land lines and steal minutes from cell phone accounts everywhere.
After receiving more than 140,000 complaints about the calls last year, a BBB investigation determined that the calls were mostly coming from a group of companies in St. Louis that offer extended warranties — essentially insurance — on cars with expiring warranties. Often the policies don’t cover important kinds of repairs, and customers who sign a contract must pay up front with little chance they’ll ever see any of that money come back. In the case of KickingTires’ editor David Thomas, he’s received three of these robo-calls in the past two weeks and doesn’t even own a car with an expiring warranty.
Schumer will work with the Federal Trade Commission (which operates the Do Not Call registry) to shut down the robo-call operations, though this is made difficult by the fact that the companies change names frequently and hire subcontractors to do the telemarketing.
U.S. Senator Annoyed By Spam Call About Car Warranty, Calls for Probe (Associated Press)
