THE WRONG WAY: Lead Gen Veteran Rich Nolan Headed to Prison for Role in Tech Support Fraud Scam and There Were Definite Red Flags

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So a while back Rich Nolan–head of something called TrackDrive– reached out to me and asked to be taken off my weekly newsletter.

I thought that was really weird.

Here’s a guy who has a significant role in the call center and lead generation worlds and he’s asking NOT to receive the most important and reliable compliance update on Earth?

That was a big red flag to me. Something that suggested the guy could not be trusted.

But that’s just my opinion.

Well, and the opinion of the DOJ.

Rich was just sentenced to 24 months in prison this week for apparently using TrackDrive as part of a scheme to defraud consumers.

He appears to have gotten off the easiest of the group of alleged co-conspirators, this according to a DOJ press release:

Nachiket Banwari, 36, of Charlotte, was sentenced to 30 months in prison followed by three years of supervised release. Hunter G. Mello, 42, of Sandwich, Massachusetts, was ordered to serve 40 months in prison followed by three years of supervised release. Richard Paul Nolan, 60, of Colorado Springs, Colorado, was sentenced to 24 months in prison followed by three years of supervised release.  The Court ordered the defendants to collectively forfeit $3,711,000 in proceeds from the scheme.

Let me pause here and say this– others in the industry have been investigated and threatened and you’ve heard me stand up for them. And all of them walked away from it clean.

I’m sort of magical like that.

Search my content though. You won’t find me standing up for Rich.

And now he’s going to prison.

Not for very long though. We may see him again soon as a changed man– and I hope we do.

But let’s talk about the old Rich.

I’m not saying he’s an all-the-way-bad dude, but he stood firmly outside the Troutman bubble. He wasn’t a part of R.E.A.C.H. even though he knew all about it and he didn’t seem to want to associate with the “good guys” in the industry. He chose to be outside of the powerful (and clean) Troutman Amin ecosystem–even though many of the folks he associated with joined us. And as I mentioned, he didn’t even want my newsletter.

So there were always plenty of red flags here, and it wasn’t just the sleazy mansion parties at industry events– it was the dismissiveness with which he approached what Troutman Amin, LLP was trying to build in the industry.

Something safe. Something compliant. Something real.

And now, perhaps, we know why.

Per the press release:

According to court records, Banwari, Mello, Nolan, and others were part of a conspiracy that carried out an international internet technical support fraud scam targeting victims, many of whom were elderly, in the United States and elsewhere. Internet pop-up “ads” were a central part of the conspiracy’s tech support scam. The malicious pop-ups suddenly appeared on victims’ screens and froze their computers.  The pop-ups contained misrepresentations designed to trick the victims into believing their computers had been infected with a virus and needed technical support to fix the problem. The pop-ups instructed victims to call the number in the pop ups to receive technical support. The numbers connected the victims to various Republic of India-based call centers who misrepresented themselves as Microsoft and further misrepresented the presence of viruses or other computer issues to induce the victims to pay hundreds or even thousands of dollars for technical support to “fix” the non-existent computer problems. No technical support was actually provided.  The scheme tricked millions of U.S.-based computer users into calling the call centers.

The press release goes on to claim Nolan made millions on the scam:

Nolan participated in the tech support scheme by creating and operating a platform called TrackDrive to route technical support fraud calls to the call centers, including Capstone. Nolan worked with pop-up publishers to ensure that the pop-ups effectively locked victim computers and displayed the correct call center routing numbers. Nolan’s TrackDrive platform routed approximately 15 million calls to call centers from the pop-ups. Nolan received a fee per call routed on his platform. Nolan also used his financial accounts to transfer proceeds of tech support fraud to publishers’ overseas bank accounts. Nolan profited approximately $2 million from the scheme. The total loss amount associated with Nolan in this scheme is approximately $19 million.

Eesh.

Now look, I’m not inside his mind. I don’t know what he was thinking or not thinking. What he knew and didn’t know.

But I know he knew how to find me. How to ask for advice. And he didn’t.

Maybe we was ashamed. Who knows.

But listen Rich, when you get out of prison in a bit and you read this give me a call.

No hard feelings.

Maybe I can help get you back on your feet.

Because there is a right way to do things and a wrong way to do things.

Troutman Amin, LLP believes in doing things the right way. And in helping others to do the same.

Be safe everybody.

Much love.

Chat soon.

 

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Published by Eric "Czar" 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.

3 Comments

  1. We need more stories like this with a happy ending where the telemarketer goes to prison. Lesson to be learned: Thou shalt obey the R.E.A.C.H. Standards.

    Reply

  2. Good. This is the exact scam that entrapped my elderly mother in law in a 4 hour call from India, where they got into her PC then stole thousands of dollars from her accounts. I’ll wager Nolan was involved. Will Jean get her $16,000 back? Well? No? Lock. THEM. UP.

    Reply

  3. The sad reality is that telemarketers love to target vulnerable senior citizens. Wish more of these telemarketer vermin were locked up in prison cells.

    Reply

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