Cingular Wireless Says It Sued Telemarketers
Cingular Wireless filed three lawsuits geared at stopping telemarketers from calling its mobile phone customers, according to a statement from the carrier.
In the first, Cingular claimed that Sebell Telecommunications, LLC of Miami made unsolicited marketing calls to Cingular subscribers through the use of an automatic telephone dialing system and a prerecorded message, in violation of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act and other laws.
According to Cingular, Sebell used a company in the Dominican Republic, called Florida Vacation Corporation, to make the telemarketing calls, which occurred during June and July 2006. Cingular had originally filed a “John Doe” lawsuit on this matter in August 2006, and has now amended the earlier complaint by identifying defendants discovered through Cingular’s ongoing investigation.
There was no answer to calls made to Sebell Telecommunications’ office.
Cingular’s second lawsuit charges American Broadcast Systems, Inc. of Seattle with using an autodialing mechanism to send prerecorded messages about “free vacations” to Cingular customers.
Calls to American Broadcast Systems did not go through.
The third lawsuit claims that Go2Prepaid, LLC of Miami, Fla. made unsolicited prerecorded telemarketing calls to Cingular customers using an autodialing mechanism. Cingular claims that Go2Prepaid worked in connection with Alo Hispanos of Bogota, Colombia to make the calls.
Go2Prepaid was unavailable for comment.
Cingular did not make copies of its court papers available along with its statement. The company, a joint venture between AT&T Inc. and BellSouth Corp., serves 57.3 million mobile customers.
