FCC Busts Brother Act

Joseph, Sean and Raymond Carney made more than 45 million illegal telemarketing calls over 13 months, selling cleaning products for septic tanks. Thirty-one million of the calls were to numbers on the FTC’s registry of people who don’t want to receive marketing calls. On July 16 the brothers agreed to pay $1.6 million to settle a suit the DOJ brought against them on behalf of the FTC. The agreement also forced them to forfeit a residential property they’d purchased, and agree to a permanent ban on telemarketing. The Carney Bros. Telemarketers initiated conversations by offering free information. People who purchased products and had outstanding balances were falsely told they would be referred to an attorney or a collection agency. Last month the FCC started requiring wireless companies to adopt technology to block robocalls.