California’s attorney general on Monday filed a lawsuit against a Florida-based mortgage company, alleging the company violated the Federal Trade Commission’s Do-Not-Call law. The suit is the second the state has filed since federal no-call laws went into effect in October.
More than 250 Californians have lodged complaints about L.M.A. Marketing Inc., doing business as Mortgage Concepts, according to the attorney general’s office.
California consumers received automated calls from the company under the guise that it was conducting a survey. A pre-recorded message would ask consumers whether they had interest in refinancing. A company representative then would call the consumer to pitch Mortgage Concepts’ refinancing service, the eight-page complaint alleges.
Company representatives told consumers who complained that the firm is exempt from the federal Do-Not-Call law because it was conducting a survey.
“Federal law makes it clear that commercial calls are off limits to consumers who have placed their names on the national Do-Not-Call Registry,” Attorney General Bill Lockyer said in a statement. “This lawsuit should serve as a warning to telemarketers who think they can evade this important consumer protection law by pretending to conduct a
