The Federal Trade Commission and ten states have settled civil charges against Fred Accuardi and a number of his affiliated companies that used illegal robocalls and telemarketing to sell Caribbean cruises under the guise of the victims receiving a free cruise for participating in a survey.

Between October 2011 and July 2012, the defendants made 15 million illegal robocalls  each day in which the person answering the call was told that he or she had been chosen to participate in a thirty second survey in return for which he or she would receive a free two day cruise to the Bahamas.  The truth is that the calls were used to market cruises of Caribbean Cruise Lines, Inc in which the consumers were convinced into paying for more expensive, higher level cruise packages.

TIPS

Automated robocalls are a scam that has been with us for many years and despite the best efforts of the Federal Trade Commission, still is victimizing many people.    It is easy to identify a robocall that is a scam.  If you get a robocall, it is a scam.  Commercial robocalls are illegal.  In 2013 I reported to you about  how the FTC, in an effort to combat robocalls held a contest with a $50,000 prize to the person who came up with the best solution to stop robocalls. The winners that year were Aaron Foss and Serdar Danis who split the prize.  Their solution involved software that will filter out calls being placed by a computer or someone identified as an unwanted caller.  When you use the software, if a robocall comes in, it rings once on your phone and then your phone automatically hangs up on the call.  So all you have to do is let the phone ring and if it stops after one ring, it was a robocall.

The software developed by Foss and Danis is now available to anyone for free for your landline and for $4.99 per month for both your landline and mobile phone.  The company providing the service is Nomorobo and you can sign up for the service at   https://www.nomorobo.com/

Long time Scamicide reader Marty Kenney recently reminded me about nomorobo.  He has used it for a long time successfully.