A U.S. district court has permanently barred a California man from claiming he can register consumers on do-not-call lists for a fee.
The Federal Trade Commission filed its complaint against Ken Chase, doing business as Free Do Not Call List.org (FDNCL.org) and National Do Not Call List.us (NDNCL.us), in early May. According to the complaint, consumers who responded to Chase’s claims and attempted to pre-register for the FTC’s Do Not Call Registry received an e-mail stating that their pre-registration had been received and that their information would be transmitted to the FTC as soon as the list became available.
The Free Do No Call List Web site also allegedly directed consumers who wanted to stop receiving telemarketing calls to what it described as “the active list” at NDNCL.us. This site allegedly represented that consumers who subscribed to the service could stop receiving telemarketing calls, as well as unsolicited faxes and junk mail. The cost was between $9.99 and $17.99 annually. The site allegedly also claimed that it could place consumers on the FTC’s Do Not Call Registry.
The complaint charged Chase with deceptively representing that the FDNCL.org and NDNCL.us sites could arrange for telephone numbers to be placed on the federal Do-Not-Call Registry.
The court order, announced Monday, prohibits Chase from misrepresenting that he can arrange for consumers to be placed on any do-not-call list. And while Chase already has refunded a total of nearly $3,800 to 254 consumers who registered with his Web site, the order requires him to verify all refunds and to provide the FTC with a list of the subscribers. Chase is also prohibited from sharing information about any of the customers who signed up for his service.
“Consumers never have to pay to register their phone numbers on the National Do Not Call Registry,” said Howard Beales, director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection in a statement.
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