| Court fines telemarketer $180,000 for making 46 million irritating ...
A California telemarketing firm has agreed to pay a $180,000 fine to settle charges with the Federal Trade Commission that it made 46 million illegal calls. The original fine was $3 million all but $180,000 will be suspended based on the defendants' inability to pay. According to the complaint filed by the Department of Justice, 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 FTC stated. 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.
Marketing outfit made 46 million illegal calls
A CALIFORNIAN telemarketing company which used automated gear to annoy the world with pre-recorded telemarketing pitches has been fined $180,000 for its antics. The Federal Trade Commission that Voice-Mail Broadcasting Corporation (VMBC) made 46 million illegal calls using the equipment. The FTC wanted to fine the company a million dollars but worked out that VMBC and its owner Jesse Crowe had no way to pay such a steep fine. The calls were flogging debt-consolidation and mortgage brokerage services and other retail and financial services. According to Network World, the equipment was supposed to leave messages on answerphones and it hung up if it got a human. This is illegal, as the FTC’s Telemarketing Sales Rules say that calls should be connected to a human sales representative within two seconds.
Demand a real probe of 9/11 towers' collapse
Seventy-five years ago, a small group of people in the most powerful country on Earth attacked their own country and gained control of it.It was the Nazi Party in Germany. After they started the Reichstag fire, the Nazis immediately blamed the Communist Party as the instigators and took control of their nation.The German people didn't learn about this until over a decade later.On Sept. 11, 2001, history may have repeated itself.I'm a member of a few hundred architects and engineers who, after studying the collapse of the World Trade Center, believe controlled demolitions caused the collapses and that the planes did not seriously affect their structural integrity.We would not presume to state who did it, as we have no proof, but an ex-president of Italy, Francesco Cossiga, recently came forward and stated that this false flag operation was run by the CIA and the Israeli Mossad.
In new tactic, Border Patrol shifts gaze inland
PEARL, Miss. - Detective Nick McLendon, on stakeout duty along a dark stretch of eastbound Interstate Highway 20, noticed a red Chevy Suburban with tinted windows and no light over its rear Texas license plate. The missing light gave him all the excuse he needed to pull the SUV over.
Packed into the Suburban, he discovered, were 14 illegal immigrants, two suspected smugglers, and a spiral notebook on the front seat, listing the passengers and their destinations in Spanish -- "Arterio Ramires to Nuy Yersey; David Luna to Nueba York; Marcelina and Jasmin to Carolina del Norte; Jose Aguilar to Alabama; Josefina Ortega to Chicago; Gustavo Ribera to Florida."
The arrests -- some 800 miles from the Mexican border -- represented a new and dramatic shift in U.S.
Second serves: Djokovic looking like a champ
The times, they may be a-changin': Is this the beginning of a power shift in tennis? Roger Federer, Justine Henin and the Williams sisters all went out quietly in this year's Aussie Open. Are the new young guns ready to take control? I have more ATP rankings points than I know what to do with: If you needed further evidence of the Big Three's dominance, then behold. Federer, Nadal and Djokovic still the top three in the rankings have all eclipsed the 5,000-point plateau in the ATP rankings. Of the last five players before Federer to attain the No. 1 ranking, only Hewitt with 5,205 in August 2002 has ever topped that total, according to ATPtennis.com. Leave some for everyone else, guys. Zack Pierce is an editor for FOXSports.com. .
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