There are few things in life more just irritating than getting massive robocalls constantly
or those unwanted corporate text messages because you may or may not have accidentally
opted into to them, or, as is the case most of the time, a company just got a hold of
your cell phone number and decided to add you to a list, or sell it to another company
who is going to add you to their list, and so on and so forth.
These calls can be irritating, they can be annoying, but more importantly, they can also
be illegal.
Joining me now to talk about this is Scott Hardy from Top Class Actions.
Scott, recently there was actually a settlement with Jenny Craig.
They were doing these robocalls and text messages, basically annoying people at any possible
opportunity, but doing so was actually a violation of the law.
Tell us what happened with this Jenny Craig text message class action that happened here.
Absolutely yeah, the Jenny Craig class action settlement alleges that Jenny Craig violated
the TCPA Act, the Telephone Consumer Protection Act.
And this is what is supposed to protect us, the consumers from getting blasted on our
cell phones via text messages, via phone calls from marketers.
Now of course, there are lots of shady people still doing this, and we see lots of class
actions.
And the interesting thing is that if someone is found guilty, if a business is found guilty
of violated the TCPA law, then they could be held liable for up to $515 per violation.
So these are big dollar violations, which is why when a company is caught, we typically
see these settled fairly quickly as in this $3 million Jenny Craig text message class
action settlement.
So what kinds of people would be illegible for this settlement?
Who was targeted with these text messages here?
So anyone who received a text message from Jenny Craig will be able to participate in
this class action settlement, you want to check out the settlement documentation, go
to the settlement administrator's website through Top Class Actions and you'll be able
to see if you qualify.
What's really interesting, and it's super duper important, as with any class action
settlement is that you submit your claim.
If you don't submit your claim and then you wait a few months and found out, oh, actually
I did qualify for that settlement, sorry you're out, you're probably not going to go and get
any money.
But this settlement is especially interesting because there's no set dollar amount per claimant,
which means that the $3 million settlement will be divided amongst all claimants equally.
And so, after they go ahead and withdraw the attorney's fees and the settlement administrator's
fees the pot will be divided by all claimants equally.
So it could be a significant payout.
We typically see TCPA class action settlements, these unwanted text messages, unwanted phone
calls, text messages, these settlements can pay out anywhere from 50, we've seen them
pay out over $400 per claim.
And so they're not pennies that you're going to get back, most likely, you want to make
sure to submit your claim, if you qualify, to get something back that could be quite
significant.
And that's just for this one settlement here.
There's other lawsuits taking place at the moment for similar things.
There's one right now, against ADT, one of the claimants of this one actually had more
than 400 robocalls to his cellphone just from ADT.
So this seems like a pattern of behavior that's starting to develop amongst corporations here
in the United States, it's let's annoy the heck out of them, let's keep calling, let's
keep texting, and then, oh, wait, we're not allowed to do that, oh, we didn't realize
that at the time.
This ADT story seems like one of the stories.
This is absolute, I mean borderline harassment of this poor guy who got over 400 calls from
this company.
Very much so.
And we see that all the time with these robocalls, robo dialers that are going out there and
just calling people, dozens, or in this case hundreds of times, but the attorneys handling
these cases are very aggressive.
Now, we want to make sure, you'll see a lot of times when you get phone calls now that
it might be a fake number that's been generated, but attorneys are actively trying to dig in
to find out who is behind the actual marketing for these phone calls.
And because it's all done through a computer it's really easy to track, who is impacted,
who should actually be able to make a claim.
And we've got multiple spam text messages, unsolicited phone call class action settlements
that are alive right now in Top Class Action that are open for claims, and we had a big
one, the Carnival Cruise class action that's going through appeals.
It's going to be delayed for a bit for payments, but many of these settlements, all you do
is you go online, you submit your phone number, and it'll tell you whether you were called
or not, and so they try to make it as easy as possible to submit your claim to make sure
that you can get paid if you are impacted.
And it's interesting you point that out because one of the things that does happen a lot is
they start using these spoofing scams too with this-
Right.
Is they'll make it look like it's a local number calling, you say oh well I don't know
who this is but they're local, maybe it's my kids school, maybe it's the doctor's office,
maybe it's the mechanic that I took my car to the other day, maybe it's something I need
to take.
So they fool you into taking these phone calls.
I cannot tell you how many times over the last year I've gotten phone calls from people
that I don't know and they'll say, "Hey, I've just got a call from your number, why did
you call me?"
Well I didn't, but my number just happens to be one that is spoofed very frequently
for some reason.
I'm lucky enough to be that guy.
So I always get calls-
Oh no.
From people saying, "Did you just call me?"
And so I've been the other side of the victim here, not necessarily receiving these unwanted
robocalls, but my number happens to be one that gets spoofed a lot.
So that is something that these corporations do, they get your number, they get it from
another company, maybe you've ordered something from Amazon, or Walmart, or Target Online,
you have to put in your phone number, they can then go and sell it, they're not supposed
to, but they do.
Third parties love to scoop up these cell phones, even donating to the political campaigns,
they go out and sell your phone numbers as well and that's what can lead to some of these
instances here with these robocalls and text messages, correct?
Correct, and something that's important to note, especially right now as we have our
election date coming up, is that most fundraisers or, if you get those robocalls, there is a
loophole in the TCPA Act, which may not actually hold those people liable.
So if you're getting really annoyed by candidates in your area that are bombasting your phone,
still report it, you can report them through Top Class Actions, but we need to see if we
can close that loophole and go after those guys too, because I don't need to be told
15 times to vote for one person.
Yes.
It's just insane.
Yeah, I'm with you on that because I'm getting text messages from candidates who I wouldn't
even dream of supporting asking if I can count on their support in the midterms.
The answer, in case any of them are watching, no, no you can't.
But Scott Hardy, we've got lots of information on topclassactions.com, available for people
who may qualify for any of these settlements or class actions happening.
So thank you very much for telling us this story today.
Thank you Farron.