On December 5, 2019, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced that a federal court in Texas has halted the operations of a Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) service provider that allegedly played a key role in robocalling consumers to promote a credit card interest reduction scheme that bilked consumers out of millions of dollars. The court issued a temporary restraining order against the service provider and its Canadian counterpart that appoints a temporary receiver and freezes the defendants’ assets.
Per the complaint, which was filed by the FTC and the State of Ohio, the VoIP service provider provided an education company with the means to make illegal robocalls to U.S. consumers in order to market the company’s phony credit card interest rate reduction services, in violation of Section 5(a) of the FTC Act, 15 U.S.C. § 45(a), and in the FTC’s Telemarketing Sales Rule, 16 C.F.R. Part 310. The FTC and Ohio alleged that the education company transferred more than $1.6 million to the service provider.