The Federal Communications Commission said yesterday that it will seek a $770,000 fine for a Phoenix mortgage firm on allegations that the company violated the national no-call list.
Dynasty Mortgage LLC is accused of committing 70 violations of the no-call list and misinforming consumers by telling them the company was exempt from the FCC's rules, the agency said. The FCC seeks $11,000 per violation.
However, Dynasty president Curtis White said his company would fight the allegations. Dynasty had hired four staffers to work on compliance issues and installed new dialing technology to ensure compliance, he said.
“It's a huge shock,” White said of the FCC's complaint. “We've been having no complaint calls.”
Many of the alleged violations appear to be repeat complaints from the same telephone numbers, White said. He said the number of alleged violations was small compared with the thousands of calls Dynasty makes daily.
“We followed the rules,” he said. “We respect the laws.”
According to the FCC, Dynasty previously received a warning of potential penalties but continued to make telemarketing calls. In December 2003, the FCC issued a citation and said the company had failed to respond to the agency's inquiries about consumer complaints of no-call violations.
The FCC has previously settled one other no-call case, a $400,000 voluntary payment by Primus Telecommunications Inc. in September 2004. Last month, the Federal Trade Commission reached a $500,000 settlement with Atlantic Palace Development and Flagship Resort Development, two Atlantic City, NJ-based timeshare companies, over allegations that their teleservices provider, Braglia Marketing Group, violated the no-call list.
Scott Hovanyetz covers telemarketing, production and printing and direct response TV marketing for DM News and DMNews.com. To keep up with the latest developments in these areas, subscribe to our daily and weekly e-mail newsletters by visiting www.dmnews.com/newsletters
