The state filed lawsuits Thursday against five Florida-based telemarketing companies accused of violating state and federal laws, Arkansas Attorney General Dustin McDaniel announced.
Filed in U.S. District Court in Little Rock, the suits claim the firms made illegal “robocalls” to Arkansans to with false offers of reduced credit-card rates, McDaniel’s office said in a news release.
According to McDaniel’s office, the subjects of the lawsuits are: Associated Accounting Specialists Inc., of Port St. Lucie, Fla., and its owner, William Page; Business First Solutions Inc., of Orlando, Fla., and its owners, Jonathon Warren and Edward Warren; Financial Ladder Inc. of Saint Cloud, Fla., and its owners, Brenda Helfenstine and Antonia Helfenstine; Financial Management Partners Inc. of Maitland, Fla., and its owners, Betsy Valorose and Eric Pugh; and Kenneth Sallies of Winter Springs, Fla., former owner of the now-defunct Customer Global Services LLC.
The lawsuits allege that all five companies violated the federal Telemarketing and Consumer Fraud and Abuse Prevention Act, the federal Telemarketing Sales Rule, the Arkansas Consumer Telephone Privacy Act and the Arkansas Deceptive Trade Practices Act. Four companies ran afoul of the Arkansas Advance Fee Loan Brokerage Act, McDaniel said.
The companies violated state and federal “Do Not Call” registry laws, the suits also allege.
“Our office has received hundreds of complaints about these types of companies and their aggressive, illegal telephone marketing,” McDaniel said, crediting the agency’s Consumer Protection Division in tracking the companies down.