Robocallers Dodge TCPA Class Action Despite Criminal Charges

A New York federal judge has reportedly dismissed a nationwide TCPA class action lawsuit filed against notorious robocallers who also face Department of Justice (DOJ) charges over millions of illegal marketing calls.  

The nationwide class action lawsuit wanted to hold robocallers and their companies responsible for millions of spoof call scams. The class action was filed in the wake of criminal proceedings launched by the DOJ alleging hundreds of millions of illegal robocalls; however, U.S. District Judge Brian M. Cogan dismissed the complaint last week after the plaintiff could not come up with evidence that he actually received a spoof call from the robocallers.  

“Plaintiff offers virtually no information that would connect Defendants to the calls he received. Instead, he suggests that if Defendants facilitated millions of robocalls, and he received robocalls, then he may allege ‘upon information and belief,’ that he received robocalls that ‘were made, carried, processed, connected, placed, routed, and/or facilitated by [Defendants] and/or their agents,” noted the judge in his dismissal order.  

Last year, the DOJ filed a criminal complaint against five companies and three individuals over millions of unwanted robocalls that allegedly targeted the elderly with “spoof” phone numbers. The defendants in one of the DOJ legal actions included Ecommerce National LLC d/b/a TollFreeDeals.com, SIP Retail d/b/a sipretail.com, and their owners/operators Nicholas and Natasha Palumbo. The defendants in the second case include Global Voicecom Inc., Global Telecommunication Services Inc., KAT Telecom Inc. aka IP Dish, and owner/operator Jon Kahen. 

The DOJ claimed that over a 23-day period, 720 million calls were reportedly carried out by TollFreeDeals.com — over 425 million were fraudulent and used fake caller ID numbers, alleged the agency.  

A day later, consumers filed a class action lawsuit in New York federal court against Jon Kahen, and Nicholas and Natasha Palumbo, along with their companies, claiming they had likely been the victims of one of the millions of illegal robocalls alleged in the DOJ legal action. They also accused the robocallers of violating a federal law meant to protect consumers, the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA).

Indeed, defendant Palumbo had been the subject of a Wall Street Journal report in August of 2020, noting that his robocall companies had garnered millions of dollars on robocalls routed through his Arizona home. The robocaller reportedly supported millions of phone-based scams, including those that duped elderly Americans into submitting their Social Security and other personal information, allowing scammers to use a “spoof” or false phone number that appears local.  

Despite dismissing the class action lawsuit, the judge rejected the robocallers’ call for sanctions, pointing out the similarity between the plaintiff’s claims and the criminal action taken by the Department of Justice.  

Have you received a spoof call from robocallers? We want to hear from you! Tell us about your experience in the comment section below.  

The plaintiff is represented by Robert J. Tolchin of The Berkman Law Office, LLC.  

The Illegal Robocaller Class Action Lawsuit is Zeitlin v. Palumbo, Case No. 1:20-cv-00510-BMC in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York. 

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