TCPAWORLD AFTERDARK: Guy Sues Telemarketers and Opens a Bar Called the “Wrong Number” Using $100k in Settlement Funds and THIS is why We Need R.E.A.C.H.

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Look at the gleam in this guy’s eyes…

So if you click this link you’ll have an opportunity to watch a news segment regarding a guy in Winton-Salem who is opening a bar–called the “wrong number”–using money he obtained from TCPA settlements:

https://www.kcra.com/article/man-uses-telemarketer-settlement-money-to-open-bar-called-the-wrong-number/41200043

This is a pretty remarkable story. And I know most folks in TCPAWorld will be quick to jump all over the guy–he’s plainly a repeat litigator and maybe he set up his lawsuits–I think everyone would do well to listen to the words used by the reporters in this story.

“LIKE SO MANY OF US, OMAR GETS A CALL, AFTER CALL FROM TELEMARKETERS…”

“I GET SO MANY PHONE CALLS EVERY DAY FOR CAR WARRANTIES OR DEBT RELIEF OR STUDENT LOANS, WHATEVER IT IS THEY ARE TRYING TO SELL. LIFE INSURANCE..”

“HE HAD A LITTLE MORE TIME ON HIS HANDS TO HANDLE THE CALLS, THAT NONE OF US ENJOY RECEIVING.”

” I STARTED ANSWERING THE CALLS AND TALKING TO THEM AND ANSWERING THEIR QUESTIONS ENOUGH TO FIGURE OUT WHO THEY ARE, AND THEN I WAS ABLE TO GO AFTER THEM.”

“DRINKS ON THE MENU WILL INCLUDE NAMES LIKE CAR WARRANTY AND DEBT RELIEF.”

Its pretty plain that the calls this guy is complaining about are not scam calls but marketing calls, likely made by lead buyers.

This is the press the industry has been absorbing for years. Direct to consumer marketers are making calls that people dread. And this is the reason why so many regulators are coming down on legitimate American businesses instead of trying to chase down the fraudulent (mostly overseas) actors.

I can virtually guarantee that the companies he sued probably did not make the phone calls he was suing for–and if they did it was pursuant to a lead obtained from a third-party. Instead the calls were likely made by lead generators who then transferred him to the ultimate product seller after he feigned interest.

The product sellers obviously do not want to call people who are not actually interested in their products but they often buy leads from companies that are (unbeknownst to the lead buyer) often fraudulently manufacturing the lead or otherwise duping people into signing up and provide consent. Either that or Mr. Omar was entering his number on websites in the hopes of nabbing calls and suing over them–which happens all the time too. All of this is bad bad news.

The sad thing, of course, is that the bulk of the $100k he made off these settlements probably came from the (mostly) innocent companies that never actually made the calls or did so only believing that they had consent to do so.

Either way, this sort of story only underscores the need for REACH–an organization dedicated to assuring unwanted robocalls stop and direct-to-consumer marketers have a little breathing room to operate lawfully.

Here is the stated business purpose on the non-profit application for the new trade organizaion I am submitting:

1. Stopping unwanted robocalls to consumers by imposing standards for the lead generation industry and preventing fraudulent lead sales;

2. Setting best practices for direct to consumer marketing more broadly;

3. Providing advocacy/education in favor of direct-to-consumer marketing and against abusive litigation targeting these companies;

4. Increasing contact rates and lowering carrier resistance to direct to consumer marketing traffic.

For more information watch me break down the entire concept of the new organization in under 2 minutes:

For more incredible content be sure to follow our You Tube channel!

Important stuff.

As for this guy opening up his bar, I know a lot of TCPAWorld dwellers are going to want to burn the place to the ground–it is a temple built to honor TCPA litigants, after all– but I disagree. I view it as a homage to the entire TCPAWorld more broadly and I think the Czar might actually swing by sometime.

But only if there’s a drink named after me on the menu…

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Published by Eric J. Troutman

The Czar of TCPAWorld Eric Troutman is one of the country’s prominent class action defense lawyers and is nationally recognized in Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) litigation and compliance. He has served as lead defense counsel in more than 70 national TCPA class actions and has litigated nearly a thousand individual TCPA cases in his role as national strategic litigation counsel for major banks and finance companies. He also helps industry participants build TCPA-compliant processes, policies, and systems. Eric has built a national litigation practice based upon deep experience, rigorous analysis and extraordinary responsiveness. Eric and his team feel equally at home litigating multibillion dollar telecommunications class actions in federal court as they do developing and executing national litigation strategies for institutions facing an onslaught of individual TCPA matters. They thrive in each of these roles – delivering consistently excellent results – while never losing sight of the client experience. While many firms now tout TCPA expertise, Eric has been there from the beginning. He built one of the country’s first TCPA-only defense teams and began serving as national TCPA counsel for his clients nearly a decade ago. This perspective allows him to swiftly develop the right litigation strategies for dealing with recurring problems, without wasting time on tactics that are bound to fail. Eric’s rich historical perspective and encyclopedic knowledge of the TCPA landscape also make him an invaluable resource to institutional compliance teams struggling to comply with the shifting regulatory landscape. No task is too small – or too big. Indeed, Eric and his team have helped build TCPA-compliant systems and processes for some of the largest and most complex corporate entities in the country. He commonly works with in-house compliance counsel to build and implement enterprise and business-line specific TCPA solutions, performs TCPA audits and drafts and reviews proposed TCPA policies and procedures. He and his team also have the technical expertise necessary to assist call centers seeking to develop TCPA-resistant call path architecture or to modify existing telephony and software integration to better insulate from potential TCPA exposure. Eric has built a reputation for thought leadership. An avid blogger and speaker, he has been at the forefront of the industry’s effort to push for clarity and a return to sanity for the TCPA for years. He was selected to advocate for the financial services industry on important TCPA issues before the Federal Communications Commission and co-authored the nation’s only comprehensive practice guide on TCPA defense. In his spare time, Eric leads defense teams representing banks and other financial services companies in consumer finance litigation matters. He has experience representing clients in UCC, TILA, RESPA FCRA, CCRA, CLRA, FDCPA, RFDCPA and FCCPA claims, as well as in fraud and bank operations issues.

6 Comments

  1. Think of what kind of bar he could build with $1 Million instead of $100K! REACH is a noble thought. The trouble is, the quintessential point is being overlooked: Just do NOT buy leads! The fact is that any lead you purchase from a third party lead vendor, by definition, will not satisfy the “prior express written consent” definition.

    Reply
  2. Pingback: Guy Sues Telemarketers and Opens Bar Called “Wrong Number” Using $100,000 in Settlement Fund and This Is Why We Need REACH – TCPAWorld – Law Glitz

  3. Eric – I know the job requires you to drink a certain amount of Kool Aid and wear a certain color of lenses in your glasses for street cred with the clients, but come on.

    I am (1) on the National DNC; (2) do not enter my personal information in online forms; (3) am a plaintiff’s class action lawyer; and (4) have sued (more than once) offenders who have violated the TCPA.

    Yes I still get lots of unlawful telemarketing calls. Every. Single. Day.

    So there are more than enough bad actors out there to sell out several days worth of music festival tickets…

    Reply

  4. Hi Eric
    Let me shed some light here, since that story didn’t touch on the finer points.
    First of all, I’m not a professional plaintiff, and have never done anything to try to get any of these people to call me.
    Secondly, I do agree with you that alot of the calls that go out are from oversees lead generators that legitimate companies have hired for marketing purposes. In North Carolina, under NCGS Ch 75, Article 4, the company who hires those lead generators is responsible for ensuring they comply with the rules of the TCPA and North Carolina telemarketing laws, so hiring a lead generator doesn’t get you off the hook, and doesn’t bypass the requirement for written permission to receive calls. It’s also not always lead generators…I’ve received more than a few of these calls from employees of the company selling the product, especially insurance companies and mortgage lenders.
    I could go on about the finer details that are involved, and I’m happy to discuss it all with you if you like, in the hopes that your REACH project is successful.
    And I’m sure we can come up with a drink to name after you…stop by some time and we’ll work on it.

    Reply

    1. One drink called the Czar and one called the Queenie please. The czar should be a blantons old fashioned. The queenie is an angels envy sour with no egg white.

      Just a suggestion.

      Reply

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