WASHINGTON—At the Federal Trade Commission’s request, a U.S. district court in Florida granted summary judgment against two individuals, approved six settlement agreements involving 11 defendants, and entered a default judgment against the remaining seven defendants, officially ending the massive Pointbreak Media robocall scheme, the agency announced.
In May 2018, the FTC charged the Florida-based defendants with operating a telemarketing scam that targeted small business owners with false threats of removal from Google’s search engine and false promises of unique keywords to make the business appear prominently in search results. The FTC also alleged the defendants wrote themselves $100 checks from over 250 businesses’ checking accounts without the business owners’ advance knowledge, consent, or authorization.
Complaint Amended
The FTC amended its complaint in July 2018 to add two counts for violations of the Telemarketing Sales Rule, because the defendants robocalled more than 74 million consumers and called more than 14 million numbers on the national Do Not Call Registry. The summary judgment and other court orders announced today ban the defendants from such illegal robocalling and direct the scheme’s main perpetrators, Dustin Pillonato and Justin Ramsey, to pay over $3.3 million.
The stipulated court orders and judgments the FTC obtained are part of the agency’s ongoing efforts to combat the scourge of illegal robocalls. The court entered judgments against Pillonato and Ramsey, as well as a default judgment against Aaron Michael Jones, Vincent Yates, Pointbreak Media, LLC, DCP Marketing, LLC, Modern Source Media, LLC, National Business Listings, LLC, and AllStar Data, LLC. The judge also approved settlements with Daniel Carver, relief defendant Stephanie Watt, and relief defendant Jennefer Ramsey.
Court Findings
The court found the primary perpetrators of the scheme, Pillonato and Ramsey, liable for each count the FTC alleged. The order bans them from: 1) telemarketing; 2) using remotely created checks to debit consumers’ accounts; and 3) marketing, promoting, or selling search optimization products or services. The order prohibits Pillonato and Ramsey from misrepresenting their affiliation with Google or any other entity, and prohibits them from misrepresenting any other facts material to a consumer’s purchase of any good or service. The court further ordered Pillonato and Ramsey to pay $3,367,666.30 and transfer custody of dozens of pieces of jewelry to the FTC. The FTC may use these assets to provide refunds to affected businesses.
The order against Jones and several defaulting defendants includes the same conduct relief as imposed on Pillonato and Ramsey. It also bans Yates and the defaulting corporate defendants from robocalling and calling numbers on the DNC Registry. The order also imposes non-suspended judgments of $2,351,670.81 against Jones, a recidivist robocaller, $1,917,073.87 against Yates, and $3,367,666.30 against the defaulting corporate defendants.
Permanent Ban
The order against Carver permanently bans him from robocalling and calling numbers on the DNC Registry, as well as requiring specific disclosures to consumers in any other telemarketing he does. It prohibits misrepresentations and imposes a $2,461,626.12 judgment, which will be partially suspended after he surrenders a 2016 Lexus RX 350 SUV. Finally, the orders against relief defendants Watt and Jennefer Ramsey impose judgments of $62,279 and $52,321, respectively, against them. The judgment against Watt will be partially suspended upon payment of $20,000, the FTC said.