Having celebrities hawk goods is nothing new, but in the era of AI it has become pretty easy to impersonate someone’s voice and use it to sell a good or service.
Not saying that’s what happened here, but the allegations are so odd that I wonder.
In Martin v. Bottom Line Concepts, 2024 WL 1119982 (S.D. N.Y. March 14, 2024) a company is stuck in a TCPA suit after allegedly sending ringless voicemails without consent.
The voicemails used Snoop Dog to pitch a federal tax break known as the Employee Retention Credit.
Per the complaint, the call stated the ERC had the “Snoop Dogg stamp of approval” and told Plaintiff to go to “ERCEnroll.com” to get “them funds in your hands quicker than you can roll up your favorite … well, you know what I mean.”
BLC moved to dismiss the case arguing that it lacked allegations sufficient to keep it in the case but the Court disagreed.
Finding BLC’s liability “plausible” the court concluded sufficient facts were alleged to hold it potentially liable and also held BLC’s challenge to standing and enhanced damages lacked merit.
In the end BLC is stuck in the suit. Unclear whether the Dogg himself may face potential liability in this one–he is not sued yet, but direct participation in the calling campaign might be enough to bring him in. We’ll keep an eye on it.
And for those interested in the latest and greatest TCPA compliance guide be sure to request a free copy of the Troutman Amin, LLP 2024 TCPA Annual Review, presented by Contact Center Compliance.
Chat soon.
Editor’s note: received a note from folks saying they represent bottom line concepts. they asked us to include this statement in the article:
“The complaint has zero merit since Bottom Line Concepts (BLC) does not engage in telephonic or voicemail marketing and the spam voicemail at the heart of the lawsuit actually promoted one of our competitors. While neither we nor our partners have used AI-generated voice recordings in any outreach or marketing, we will take all necessary legal steps to protect our name and the reputation of excellence built over the past 15 years.
Aggressive tactics such as fake voicemails have been employed by unscrupulous actors who took advantage of the ERC program for fraudulent purposes, and do not reflect BLC’s scrupulous commitment to accuracy and compliance.”
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Here’s some background on the scam operation known as Bottom Line Concepts…while Snoop Dog may be an AI fake voice (but doubtful given this additional info) even Shark Tanks Mr. Wonderful promotes them…
It’s like a multi-level marketing scheme, and they take 25% of the payouts (!!) compared to legit tax firms that do all the work and take 5-15%.
What WSJ barely touches on is that BLC and affiliates are cold calling everybody and their brother asking do you own a small biz, do you have more than 6 employees, did you pay any of them during the pandemic? Then you could be eligible for up to $26,000 per employee!! They’ve even using Pakistani call centers to promote their wares here’s one such operator(per WSJ):
“It’s really hard to crack,” said Muhammad Rauf, owner of a cold-calling agency in Lahore, Pakistan, that worked with four Bottom Line affiliates. “A lot of people think it’s a scam” and worry the IRS will check their books, he said. Rauf said he stopped working with two affiliates in June because of a fee dispute; his relationship with the others ended in disappointment. “They were thinking they can become a millionaire,” he said.”
https://www.wsj.com/business/entrepreneurship/inside-a-sales-army-turning-a-tax-break-into-a-modern-day-gold-rush-3741fa42
https://www.wsj.com/video/series/wsj-explains/how-an-obscure-tax-break-became-a-gold-rush/3AA902C0-5E7E-42B1-B862-D72850518B08