RALEIGH, N.C. (Legal Newsline) - North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper filed a suit Wednesday against an alarm system company that allegedly made illegal robocalls to numbers listed on the Do Not Call Registry.
"Thanks to the Do Not Call Registry, people have the right to decide who calls them at home and we want to protect that right," Cooper said. "The Registry has cut the number of unwanted sales calls, but some telemarketers continue to violate the law and that's why we're cracking down."
The suit, filed against ISI Alarms NC Inc., which is no longer in operation, and owner William Jason Waller of Iredell County, seeks civil penalties for illegal robocalls made to consumers in the state. State laws allows for penalties of as much as $5,000 per Do Not Call violation.
More than 1,000 consumer complaints were registered with the state's Consumer Protection Division following misleading robocalls claiming that the FBI or State Bureau of Investigation had received reports of recent break-ins in the area. Consumers were told to press a certain number to learn more about recent crimes in the area that allegedly transferred them to a call center operated by ISI.
The transfer led to a pitch for the company's home alarm system and alarm monitoring services. Cooper alleges that the calls led to a quadrupling of the companies' sales.
The automated message also allegedly gave consumers the option to press a number to stop the calls that consumers said did not work.
North Carolina AG files suit over Do Not Call violations
