DES MOINES, Iowa (Legal Newsline) - Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller announced Tuesday that an Arizona telemarketing company will permanently cease telephone calls to Iowans.
Advanced Employment Solutions LLC, owner Ann Marie Scott and general manager Mila D. Sprague, both of Phoenix, were ordered to stop contacting Iowans by Polk County Judge Douglas F. Staskal.
Advanced Employment sold household products, allegedly claiming that the sales aided veterans and disabled workers.
The consent judgment, which covers both telemarketing calls and charitable solicitations to Iowa residents, resolves a consumer fraud lawsuit brought by Miller in September that alleged the operation sold trash bags, kitchen items, Bibles and American flags. The company's sales pitches allegedly included callers falsely identifying themselves as "handicapped veterans" or "disabled workers."
The pitches were particularly directed to older Iowans, the suit alleges.
"AES telemarketers repeatedly called a 92-year-old Iowa woman over a year, convincing her to pay $900 for the products they hawked in these calls," Miller said. "Based on the solicitation practices we captured in undercover recordings, we think it's likely the telemarketers used deception to induce this woman to place repeat orders, and the same goes for many other older Iowans who placed orders."
The judgment also requires the defendants to make best efforts to refund Iowa consumers who request refunds. It also requires the defendants to refrain from collecting on any previous Iowa sales and from making any future use of its list of Iowa customers or transferring the list to anyone else.
Iowa AG permanently bars telemarketer from the state
