Meet The People Behind The Car Warranty Robocallers
We know how much you just loooove those car warranty robocallers, so we couldn't pass up an opportunity to introduce you to the folks the FTC says is behind the robot army.
Meet Christopher, James, Damian, and Maureen. They are allegedly behind the three companies responsible for 3 billion robocalls.
From Fox News:
Meet the main players behind the alleged scheme:
- Christopher D. Cowart, 47, of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., owns Transcontinental Warranty, a Delaware company based in Fort Lauderdale. A graduate of Southeastern Louisiana University, Cowart likes to read, travel and play golf in his spare time. He also maintains a Facebook page and uses a LinkedIn profile to advertise his latest business ventures.
- James A. Dunne, 36, of Daytona Beach, Fla., owns Florida-based Voice Touch with his wife, Maureen. Dunne has a checkered legal past, including charges of filing a false report of a bomb that landed him six months in jail in 1991. He was most recently arrested in 2001 for indecent exposure, but those charges were later dismissed.
- Maureen E. Dunne, nee Maureen Geisen, is James Dunne's wife. Little information can be found pertaining to her.
- Damian P. Kohlfeld, 35, of Valparaiso, Ind., is the owner of Network Foundations, which is based in Chicago. Kohlfeld allegedly supplied the technical know-how for the alleged telemarketing scheme employed by all three companies. The Arizona State University graduate has more than a decade of experience writing software and building computer networks. His latest hit, according to the FTC, was a "spoofing" device that tricked caller ID systems.
They've all denied wrongdoing, but the FTC seems fairly certain that they've got the right people. FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz says consumers have already started to notice that the calls have stopped.
"I have never seen an issue that resonated so much," Leibowitz told FOXNews.com. "When I was at my daughter's soccer game, people came up to me and said, 'Thank you so much for stopping these guys.' It resonates because this is all about protecting Americans' privacy."
Have you gotten any car warranty robocalls lately?
Behind a Massive Robocall Scam, Four Human Faces [Fox News] (Thanks, Justin!)
(Photo:betaart.com)
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Comments:
Not lately. Thanks FTC!
Yes, I have gotten some robocalls, just yesterday. I'm not sure what they were trying to sell me, as they were speaking in spanish.
Besides the robocallers, I've seen a number of TV commercials for similar services from what appears to be multiple companies. I think 3rd party warranties have been around forever, but why the viral ad campaigns all of the sudden?
It's absolutely true that the robocalling has stopped. I haven't gotten one in more than a month; I used to get them two, three times a week.
Breaking News:
Louisville Sluggers Sales Through The Roof
I still get some calls with absent or forged caller ID. I don't know if it is these guys, or not, because I never answer unless I fully recognize the caller ID info and it is someone I would talk to. Occasionally I look the numbers up on Google which usually leads to one or more of the "who is behind that number that called me" web sites. The "lower your credit card rate" scams are still the leader (though the car warranty scam almost reached their level a month or so ago).
A Delaware corporation and a Chicago based firm, hmm. . .
Just the other day I got a robot call, in the exact same style as the car warranties, trying to sell me health insurance.
Well, actually the really funny part is that I didn't receive it. A party line for the IT dept. here at work received it. Where do I work? A Hospital. I think i'm convered on the health insurance front, thanks.
So... I really hope someone didn't take inspiration from these jackasses and decide to start selling health insurance the same way.
It's not just about the calls people! These people are scammers! My dad was a victim! The car "warranty" they sell is a bottle of cheap engine oil and a list of stipulations so thick, the warranty is useless. Luckily before my dad opened the bottle he came to me for help when he realized that he'd paid hundreds of dollars for a bottle of oil. I was able to get his money back...but I'm still traumatized from the hassle.
you know i have gotten those calls. thing is i live in Canada.
i get robocalls daily, leaving messages on my answering machine specifically for someone i've never heard of. Are they car warranty calls? I haven't bothered listening to one.
So... when does the lynching begin? Or at the very least, a class action lawsuit? I want my $0.02 check!
I have the deep urge to look up their home phone numbers and start dialing them 1000 times a day! :-)
"But Cowart says he was "undeniably misled" by Dunne, because Dunne told him that the caller information provided to Transcontinental was for consumers who registered to be solicited.
"We were told that it was co-registration data," Cowart told FOXNews.com. "We gave him a test and he delivered. We had no reason not to believe what was said.""
Riiiiiiiight. You had no clue that the numbers transferred to you might be folks who were on the DNC list or were cell phone numbers (a no-no in itself with regard to robocalls)... but yet your employees wouldn't tell the prospective customer the name of the company they worked for, other than to say things like "Warranty Services". Yep, totally innocent.
We should all call their home, cell and office numbers like 5 times per day and let's see if they like it.
I'm just saying.... I believe in the philosophy of take and recv...
I just got a call today that has a google record of selling auto insurance, except this time it was offering me life insurance. o_0
Still have it recorded on my voicemail.
The car warranty robocalls have stopped (I used to get several a week, to both my land line and cell), but now I've gotten a couple of mortgage refinancing robocalls.
Christopher D. Cowart's personal cell phone number is 954-980-1394. Have fun.
I haven't gotten the car warranty calls lately, but I've received several robo calls at work trying to sell credit card debt "reduction" services. (FWIW, my work number is a US government number that is unpublished. Alas no, I'm no secret agent or anything, just a data center grunt but its unpublished anyway.)
Everytime I pressed "one" to speak to a representative and tell them to tell me more about them and thier company in a remotely authoritative voice, they hang up immediately, the cowards. (Last caller ID number was 214-221-9430....apparently according to google, I'm far from the only one getting calls with this seemingly spoofed ANI.)
@mtarget: Im with you on this one, 2-3 times a day easily. I think the worst I had it was 11 calls from the same number in sequence in the same day, then they tried 2 different ones. I have been saved from this telephone hell known as robo-callers and I for one am grateful!
Just because the calls stop after people are arrested doesn't mean they're responsible for them. Not to imply that these people aren't guilty as sin, but all that means is that whoever was behind them has stopped for one reason or another. If the police arrest a random person for murder and the same MO never pops up for another victim, does that mean they got the right guy?
I get a call every day from a company trying to buy my nonexistent timeshare or sell me a timeshare. They kinda just mess with you when you ask to be taken off the list, so I Advance Call Managered them into eternal busy signals.
However, anyone wanting to mess with 786-347-6129 or 443-345-1636 (which conveniently started calling me with the same pitch once I told the first number to remove me), you will have my eternal gratitude.
Well the calls we've been getting must not be from these people because they still call us 2-3 times every day. The caller ID info is apparently spoofed (it's a 12-digit number beginning with 25 instead of a regular 10-digit number), and they usually only let it ring once or twice then hang up. And our VOIP provider doesn't let us block specific callers, only "private" callers, so people who spoof get through.
@WiglyWorm: I can say if the car warrenties have slowed, because I got a new number. But I have a bank of phones at work, and have gotten health insurance calls after the car warrenties started to die off. They also name drop Obama, and will sometime switch it up with a mortgage scam.
They all sound like real winners to me.
No Car Warranty ones, but one with the same MO asking if I wanted to lower my Credit Card interest rate. Once you get a human on the line and ask "which card" they reply "any of them" and refuse to tell you who gave you the number. Asking for the name of the company netted "Cardholder Services" or some such generic name. Asking for address/phone number of the company got me a "Would you like to talk to my supervisor? hold on just a second" and then they terminate the call. I would wager the call center did the Car Warranty calls too.
@pecan 3.14159265: All you had to do to get one was to give AAA a working cellphone number during a roadside assistance call.
I got mine within ten minutes of giving the AAA operator the number of a trac-fone cell that I kept in the glovebox for emergencies only.
@Megalomania: What if the police nabbed a "random" person and suddenly BILLIONS of murders suddenly ceased?
@Mr4Runner: I think I know of a few people that I'd like to have blasted with calls as well... I should post their number as Cowart's cell too!
(Let's just say I'm skeptical, same for the comment in the Wired article.)
Mine have stopped within the last month actually... It's nice b/ they got my work desk # some how and I would always get calls on a daily basis..
car warranties stopped a few weeks ago
we still get calls for:
Health Insurance
Credit Card Rate Reductions
Mortage Rate Reductions
NCO financial (collections company)
and
Men calling wanting to make an appointment for a "massage"
Why the massage?
When I got TWC digital cable, I got the phone with the package. They gave me the phone number that once belonged to this hooker -> [www.news-herald.com]
Needless to say, the voicemail box is still full.
I'm still getting calls from numbers I don't recognize that don't leave voicemail (what I assumed were car warranty robocalls before) but I have no idea what they're about because I don't answer.
@Cruc: That number worries me as the area code is semi-local. I may mistake it as someone I know calling from a strange/new phone...every time. (I don't pay attention to things like that very often.)
Yep! We need to take down these credit card robo- callers too. Just got one 5 minutes ago.
@toddkravos: I've had that fear every time I've been given a new number for whatever reason...
You could always direct them to an address of a person you don't like...
At one time I got at least three a day. I put my cell phone number on the Do Not Call registry (there is a separate one for cellular phones) and I never received one again.
@kbarrett: I've given AAA a cell phone number during a roadside assistance call, and I've still never gotten robocalls from auto warranty companies or insurance companies.
@pecan 3.14159265: Yes, it could always be worse. All the Consumerist stories could end with "then the CSR murdered my family and burned down my house". So let's not hold this story to some bizarre standard and instead evaluate it for what it is, which is that people are getting repeated robocalls calls and it's incredibly annoying and disruptive. I work from home and I have decided to stop answering my landline as most of the calls are robocalls. I'm happy to see that some action is being taken.
i've never gotten a robocall about a car warranty.
Still getting robocalls in Canada. :(
I've received a number of calls from humans trying to sell me a robot.
Awesome! Now, if only we can get Rachel from Card Services up on the FBI Terrorist Watch List...
@seattleperson: Slightly off topic, I recommend not having a land line at all. Four years and running here, and we get along just fine.
Well, it could be worse. They could be doing gross things to food.
I've actually never been robocalled by car warranty companies or anything. All the calls I've gotten are from companies I do business with, and it's usually relevant!