The Federal Trade Commission announced a complaint and proposed consent decree settling charges that a California-based “voice broadcaster” made over 46 million unlawful telemarketing calls. The proposed court order permanently bars the defendants from violating the FTC’s Telemarketing Sales Rule (TSR) and requires them to pay $180,000 in civil penalties.

According to the complaint filed by the Department of Justice (DOJ), since October 1, 2003, Voice-Mail Broadcasting Corporation (VMBC) and its owner, Jesse Crowe, have used automated dialers to “blast” consumers with prerecorded telemarketing pitches. The calls pitched products from debt-consolidation services to mortgage brokerage services and other retail and financial services. When VMBC’s telemarketing calls were answered by consumers rather than answering machines or voicemail systems, VMBC either immediately hung up, leaving consumers with “dead air,” or played a prerecorded message. Such calls violate the TSR, which limits telemarketers’ use of prerecorded messages by requiring that calls answered by a person be connected to a sales representative within two seconds. The FTC’s complaint alleges that VMBC, under the direction of its owner, made more than 46 million calls that violated the TSR.

The consent decree announced today is similar to those previously approved by the Commission in other cases involving the misuse of prerecorded telemarketing messages. The proposed consent decree bars VMBC and its owner from violating the TSR by either hanging up or playing a recorded message when a consumer answers a call, instead of promptly connecting the consumer to a sales person. The proposed consent decree imposes a civil penalty of $3 million against VMBC and its owner, of which all but $180,000 will be suspended based on the defendants’ inability to pay.

However, VMBC and its owner will become liable for the full amount if the court finds they misrepresented their financial condition.

The consent decree against VMBC and its owner is the third FTC case challenging telemarketing practices filed in federal district court in Los Angeles in as many months. In November 2007, as part of the FTC’s most recent Do Not Call enforcement sweep, the Commission filed a complaint and consent decree against Ameriquest Mortgage Company for improperly calling consumers on the Do Not Call Registry whose numbers had been obtained from third-party lead-generators, resulting in a $1 million penalty. At the same time, the FTC filed a complaint against Global Mortgage Funding, Inc., for making hundreds of thousands of calls to consumers on the Do Not Call Registry, failing to transmit the required caller ID information, failing to pay the Do Not Call Registry fees, and improperly abandoning calls made to consumers.

The Commission vote approving the complaint and proposed consent decree was 5-0. The complaint and proposed consent decree were filed by DOJ on January 28, 2008, in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California.