A California company that provides robocalling transmission services to its clients has agreed to terminate contracts with clients who violate federal telemarketing laws, according to an announcement by the Federal Trade Commission Tuesday.
Skyy Consulting, Inc., doing business as CallFire, "either knew, or consciously avoided knowing, that their clients were violating" the Telemarketing Sales Rule, the FTC said.
The company uses computers to send pre-recorded phone calls to thousands of phones at the same time. While some robocalls are legal, such as those initiated by schools and politicians, telemarketing robocalls are illegal without a consumer's written consent.
CallFire facilitated the transmission of sales calls for insurance, debt consolidation and mortgage services and knew or should have known that calls were being made to people on the national do-not-call list, according to a complaint filed by the FTC.
While it's unclear whether any of CallFire's clients made calls allegedly from Rachel of Cardholder Services, or Stacy or the handful of other non-existent women familiar to many consumers, it's certainly possible.
CallFire must pay a $75,000 fine, review all existing and future phone messages and terminate contracts with clients who attempt to deliver illegal robocalls.
