Court Blocks Marketing Calls to Verizon Customers

By Kathryn Balint, The San Diego Union-Tribune

Dec. 9–Verizon Wireless has won a court order barring a San Diego company from making what the wireless company said were illegal telemarketing calls to more than 1 million of its cell-phone customers.

The court order is part of a settlement made public yesterday by Verizon. In the settlement, Intelligent Alternatives, a Sorrento Valley marketing firm, was permanently barred from using automatic dialers to deliver recorded messages to Verizon customers. The company also agreed to pay $20,000 in damages.

Verizon said it will donate the entire amount to the Family Justice Center Foundation in San Diego for its HopeLine program, which offers help to victims of domestic violence.

Intelligent Alternatives could not be reached for comment yesterday. The phone number for the company had been disconnected.

“I think the settlements really demonstrate our commitment to vigorously defending our customers’ privacy,” said Verizon spokesman Ken Muche. “We have a successful record of suing spammers, and now we have a successful record of suing companies that are illegally telemarketing to our customers.”

Verizon filed separate lawsuits in August against Intelligent Alternatives and another firm, Resort Marketing Trends of Coral Springs, Fla., accusing both of making unsolicited telemarketing calls over the summer. The lawsuits were the first in which a wireless carrier has sued a telemarketer, Verizon said.

Unsolicited marketing calls to wireless phones are prohibited by California and federal laws, Verizon said in court papers.

Resort Marketing Trends settled with Verizon in September by agreeing to stop using automatic dialers and recorded messages in calls to Verizon customers. The company, which went out of business, did not pay damages, Muche said.

Verizon’s suit against Intelligent Alternatives said the company made 1.1 million unsolicited marketing calls since June to Verizon Wireless employees and subscribers.

In one such call described in the lawsuit, a Verizon employee received a recorded message telling her to call a toll-free number to claim a prize. When she did, an operator claiming to represent the RiverPointe Napa Valley Resort time-share property asked her for personal information, the suit said.

Ultimately, Verizon said it determined that Intelligent Alternatives had made the call.

Unsolicited marketing calls could reduce a cell-phone customer’s allocated minutes or result in them being charged for the call.

Last year, Verizon obtained an injunction against a Rhode Island spammer who had sent unsolicited text messages to the company’s customers. Verizon also prevailed in three previous cases against spammers.

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