Peer fined $ 1.66 million for making 60 million automated calls to sell sump cleaners

• Three New Jersey brothers settled for $ 1.66 million after making 59.6 million automated calls.
• “Hello, this is not a sales call or a solicitation,” the robocalls began.
• About 63% of the numbers called were in the national do not call register.

Three New Jersey brothers will pay $ 1.66 million to settle a federal lawsuit claiming they made 59.6 million robocalls.

Environmental Safety International, led by Sean and Joseph Carney, and telemarketing firm Carbo, run by Raymond Carney, were using the calls to sell septic tank and septic tank cleaning products, the Justice Department said on Friday.

The DOJ said the three Carney brothers had agreed to a civil fine of $ 10.2 million, most of which was suspended. Instead, they will pay $ 1.66 million, along with $ 774,000 in goods. They also agreed not to collect $ 164,402 in outstanding customer balances.

Working cooperatively, the two companies made millions of illegal telemarketing calls between January 2018 and December 2020, according to the Federal Trade Commission.

The government said in its complaint that the appeals were made in two groups. The first was 45 million calls, followed nine months later by 14.6 million more calls.

More than 37.7 million calls, or about 63%, were made to numbers on the national do not call registry, according to a complaint filed in federal court earlier this month.

“Hello, this is not a sales call or a solicitation,” the robocalls began, according to a transcript of the complaint. “We’re calling from an environmental company with information for all owners of septic tanks and sumps.”

They added, “We would like to give you free information about our all natural and environmentally friendly septic tank cleaner.”

If customers pressed “1” during the, they were placed in a pipeline that ultimately took them to a live telemarketer offering Environmental Safety International products, according to the government lawsuit.

The cleaning products were called “Activator 1000” and “Activator 2000”.

The DOJ complaint said the calls violated the FTC’s telemarketing sales rule, which requires telemarketers to disclose the identity of the seller. It also forces callers to ignore numbers in the do not call register.

“The Department of Justice is working with the FTC to prevent the scourge of robocalls that harass and invade the privacy of millions of people every day,” said Brian M. Boynton, Acting Assistant Attorney General at the Department of Justice.