WASHINGTON—Following a Federal Trade Commission lawsuit, the operators of a telemarketing scam that called hundreds of thousands of consumers nationwide to pitch them expensive “extended automobile warranties” will face a lifetime ban from the extended automobile warranty industry and from all outbound telemarketing.
Under the terms of proposed court orders, three companies and their owners that were charged by the FTC with running the operation that scammed consumers out of millions of dollars, would be permanently banned from participating in the extended automobile warranty market, as well as from any further involvement in outbound telemarketing, according to the FTC.
“AVP misled consumers about who they were and what they were selling and called a large number of consumers who were on the FTC’s Do Not Call List,” said Samuel Levine, director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection. “Today’s order banning five defendants from the industry and imposing a monetary judgment of $6.6 million continues the Commission’s aggressive crackdown on telemarketing fraud.”
First Charged in 2022
The FTC first charged the owners and operators of American Vehicle Protection Corporation (AVP) with violating the FTC Act and the Telemarketing Sales Rule in February 2022. In its complaint, the FTC charged that AVP made unsolicited calls in which it claimed to be affiliated with vehicle makers, and deceptively claimed their products, which cost thousands of dollars, offered “bumper to bumper” protection, the FTC said in its complaint..
American Vehicle Protection Corp., CG3 Solutions, and Tony Gonzalez Consulting Group, Inc., along with individual defendants Tony Allen Gonzalez and his brother, Charles Gonzalez, have agreed to the terms of the proposed court orders, the FTC said.
The orders also include a monetary judgment of $6.6 million, which is largely suspended based on their inability to pay.
It’s Called Fresh for a Reason. And We Offer Home Delivery. For Free!
The biggest, best and freshest news reporting in credit unions remains free in ’23! Each morning CUToday.info delivers its daily Fresh Today news update offering the latest headlines and breaking news right to your email, with the easy-to-read headlines format allowing you to click on the stories that interest you most in order to learn more.
If you haven’t yet signed up for the new email solution on which CUToday.info has partnered with ResponseGenius, you can do so here. Signing up requires less than one minute of your time—and it’s free!
Please note that after signing up you may need to go to your Spam/Junk folder and mark the morning headlines email as safe. CUToday.info does not provide its list of readers and emails to outside parties, and we will not be contacting you to sell you an extended warranty or sending you any links so you may cash in on an inheritance you didn’t know was coming.
And did we mention it’s free?
Please note and/or make your IT department or email administrator aware the emails will be coming from the domains CUTodayinfo.com and CUTodayinfoReply.com