17. If PACs spend nearly all of their money on fundraising and salaries, fundraisers can say they their motives were sincere and it costs money to raise money, he said. These markup elements allow the user to see how the document follows the The site has since been taken down. And the groups they were raising money for werent charities at all, but political action committees, which normally are set up to gather funds for candidates or political causes. SOURCE: National Consumer Law Center, Federal Trade Commission. include documents scheduled for later issues, at the request Congress adopted the requirement to create a streamlined process to collect information about robocalls and spoofing against the backdrop of the existing informal consumer complaint process. What is wrong with giving somebody a second chance? Zeitlin responded when Reuters asked about his hiring practices. NPRM, It wouldve been nice to know that my money was going to a PAC, not a charity, and that it wasnt going to actually help police and firefighters directly.. This site displays a prototype of a Web 2.0 version of the daily ), send an email to a copy of this Report and Order Rulemaking, including the Final Regulatory Flexibility Analysis, to the Chief Counsel for Advocacy of the Small Business Administration. 2. Reuters interviewed a dozen donors to PACs in the informal network. ThePAC, organized by Zachary Bass, spent 90% of its take on fundraising, campaign filings show. This document has been published in the Federal Register. Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 Analysis. Section 227(e) prohibits unlawful spoofingthe transmission of misleading or inaccurate caller ID information with the intent to defraud, cause harm, or wrongfully obtain anything of value. The .gov means its official. It was viewed 36 times while on Public Inspection. They said it was not uncommon to find needles in the bathroom or a caller passed out at his desk. The calls, which did not advocate violence or suggest the building should be breached, was sent out by the Rule of Law Defense Fund, a fundraising arm of the Republican Attorneys General Association. Efforts to pass anti-robocall legislation have stalled for years, but the agreement announced Friday increases the odds that Congress will send the White House a bill before 2020. Good evening this is Mike Stevens calling for the Committee for police officers defense this calls recorded for quality assurance Ok Hello hello. Federal Register 03/03/2023, 1465 Last summer, after coming under fire from state and government regulators for alleged deception in fundraising for charities, he defended his reputation on a website called richardzeitlintruth.com. First, we find that there is value in maintaining the separate informal consumer complaint process. In the 2 year period examined by Reuters, records show, TPFE and three other Zeitlin firms earned more than $27.6 million for PAC fundraising. . Robocallers have apparently been using the name of a former Abilene City Councilman/Abilene businessman to try to entice people to give to a fake police charity. Weintraub and a fellow Democratic commissioner wrote a memo to that effect in 2016. . Recording / robocall Comments . 05/04/2018 05:04 AM EDT. 16. This robocall tip line will provide a streamlined process for reporting potential violations, and will enable the Enforcement Bureau to respond quickly to disruptive robocalling events. It also has roots in charity fundraising. Laura Strickler is a senior investigative producer and reporter for NBC News. Timely and thorough information from private entities is crucial to enable the Commission to mitigate illegal robocall incidents and bring swift enforcement actions. Relevant incidents might include a corporation or association experiencing a deluge of robocalls overwhelming their internal phone network or a voice service provider that found evidence of illegal robocalls traversing its network. If you are using public inspection listings for legal research, you 503, 132 Stat 348, 1091. Final Regulatory Flexibility Analysis. and services, go to Better Business Bureau (BBB) advises area residents to be cautious of phone calls or mailers soliciting donations to the National Police Support Fund, an organization that describes itself as a. The Committee for Police Officers Defense is run by James J. Fotis, who is a retired New York Police officer, who ran unsuccessfully in 2007 for Sheriff of Manassas City / Manassas Park City / Prince William County. The full text of this document is available for public inspection online at for better understanding how a document is structured but Those calls used a recording of Trump's . has no substantive legal effect. Federal election laws were designed to prevent corruption, he said, not to protect consumers.. In addition, public entities often contact Enforcement Bureau staff directly about robocalling and spoofing matters. Find legal resources and guidance to understand your business responsibilities and comply with the law. If an individual consumer mistakenly files a complaint with the new portal, the Bureau will forward the complaint to the Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau. Delany De Leon-Colon, postal inspector in charge of the USPS Criminal Investigation Unit, explained how the elderly are particularly likely to fall for robocall . Lisa Cavazuti is an investigative reporter for the NBC News Investigative Unit. IE 11 is not supported. 20-374, FCC-21-75, adopted and released on June 17, 2021. You are not lying, but you are being extremely misleading. Spot the latest COVID scams, get compliance guidance, and stay up to date on FTC actions during the pandemic. The calls, which often target elderly donors, come from a variety of generic and similar-sounding aliases: The Police Officers Support Association, the National Emergency Responders Coalition and. Its the only thing in life Ive ever been (expletive) good at, said Armstrong, who records show has theft and drug convictions. The Better Business Bureau says if anyone calls or knocks asking you to help the police, the best thing you can do is ask them for information before you agree to donate. Its a sink or swim environment. While acknowledging that every industry has its bad apples,he wrote: To this day it strikes me as odd that an industry that has over the years hired hundreds of thousands of people (perhaps millions), many of whom had trouble holding down more traditional day jobs, would become such a punching bag for the government and the media.. Callers told Reuters they easily made the switch, working in the same buildings, for the same bosses, using similar scripts. documents in the last year, by the Coast Guard Each document posted on the site includes a link to the 9. Sections 64.1204(a) and 64.1606(a) contain new or modified information collection requirements that require review by OMB under the PRA. Alex Angelides, a 31-year-old engineer from Arlington, Virginia, donated $600to a superPAC called For a Better America, which spent 90% of its money on fundraising alone. Generally, those in the informal network portrayed themselves as charitable, gave little to the causes they promoted and relied principally on small donors. A private entity cannot determine whether a call violated the TCPA or the Truth in Caller ID Actthis determination is left to the Commission, an action brought by state law enforcement, or a judicial outcome from a private right of action. The Commission has a well-established process for individual consumers to submit complaints about unwanted and suspected illegal robocalls and spoofed calls: The Commission's informal consumer complaint process, which the Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau oversees. In addition, we note that pursuant to the Small Business Paperwork Relief Act of 2002, we previously sought specific comment on how the Commission might further reduce the information collection burden for small business concerns with fewer than 25 employees. [FR Doc. It is further ordered Legitimate charities can be checked on websites such as www.guidestar.org. Ask if the donation is tax-deductible. better and aid in comparing the online edition to the print edition. We acknowledge commenters' concerns that, at least initially, private entities might be confused about whether the consumer complaint process or the new streamlined process is a more appropriate place to submit information. Zeitlin, whose operations also have been examinedby the Center for Public Integrity and other media outlets, said on his website that hes never been accused, indicted, tried or convicted of anything.. If youre a PAC, and youre raising money for one purpose and doing something else, thats fraud, said Elizabeth Grant, who oversees the Oregon Department of Justice Charities unit. We have never contributed to Rule of Law Defense Fund. The authority citation for part 64 continues to read as follows: Authority: We find that adopting a distinct intake process for private entities best satisfies the statutory language, while integrating it with the existing process managed by the Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau will reduce administrative costs and consumer confusion. regulatory information on FederalRegister.gov with the objective of This is a summary of the Commission's Report and Order, in EB Docket No. Like many such telemarketing centers tucked away in strip malls or office parks, it offered no clues to what went on inside. This is John calling from the committee. corresponding official PDF file on govinfo.gov. Federal campaign records tell part of the story. 3274, this Report and Order, is hereby How do I know you are telling the truth or the people who talked to you are telling the truth? he said. Pitches at Politicause and TPFE were adapted to avoid allegations of fraud, former callers said, noting that the conversations were occasionally monitored by company compliance officers. 1503 & 1507. Private entity submissions of robocall violations. A JPMorgan spokesperson said its political action committee donated $25,000 to the attorneys general group and none of it went to the Rule of Law Defense Fund. on We were good at slick-talking these people, one former caller, a felon, said of unwitting donors. Blue / Bloomberg via Getty Images. The "Committee for Police Officer's Defense" (CPOD) was configured to help police officers fight against the continuing "War on Cops" by taking a varied political stance against politicians, activist judges, prosecutors, district attorneys and a host of others who try to bring police officers down by any means. In a statement to NBC News, Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall, who runs the fund, said the calls were sent out without his knowledge. documents in the last year, 36 Appendix A, Richard Zeitlin, the biggest fundraiser in the loose network identified by Reuters, told a reporter in a brief interview that he had closed down all of his call centers, saying I wanted a change in direction. Asked about ex-employees claims of deception in his companies PAC fundraising practices, he declined to discuss specifics. One Piaro committee, Americans for the Cure of Breast Cancer, garnered $1.6 million in donations through Zeitlins fundraising operations and made one charitable contribution, $10,000 to the Susan G. Komen Foundation less than 1% of the total raised, campaign filings show. The calls always seem to come when you least expect it. Going byvarious names, the fundraising operation has worked for some of the same PACs as Zeitlins firms have and has employed some of the same people, according to internal PAC records, state corporate filings, employee interviews and deposition testimony in a civil case unrelated to this article. In interviews, a dozen former employees of Politicause and Zeitlins TPFE described techniques they used to wrangle donations, leaving contributors with the impression they were giving to good causes. The FRFA is set forth in Appendix C. 18. Updated: 05/04/2018 05:00 AM EDT. (269) 257-6522 is a Fake Police Charity Robocall Do not answer. documents in the last year, 122 The Federal Trade Commission, which is responsible for policing telemarketing, generally has no jurisdiction over political fundraising, said Lois Greisman, an associate director in charge of the agencys marketing practices division. The Commission will publish a document in the 09/22/2021 at 8:45 am. In recent years, some telemarketers have used technology to bombard consumers with hundreds of millions of prerecorded calls that are often unwanted and frequently deceptive. An arm of the Republican Attorneys General Association, a national group representing the top law enforcement officers in their . But Lee Goodman, an election lawyer and former commissioner who is a Republican, said its dangerous for the government to decide which committees are scams based on how much they spend on causes. daniel.stepanicich@fcc.gov. Use the PDF linked in the document sidebar for the official electronic format. 801(a)(1)(A). The call center in Sylacauga, visited by Reuters last year, was operated by Las Vegas-based TPFE Inc, a firm controlled by Zeitlin. To achieve this objective, we direct the Enforcement Bureau to create and monitor an online portal located on the Commission rendition of the daily Federal Register on FederalRegister.gov does not Only official editions of the The company later was renamed Politicause. Register, and does not replace the official print version or the official Thus we adopt SAFE Credit Union's suggestion that the portal clearly explain its purpose and intended use. To that end, the new portal's home page will include prominent language that not only explains its purpose and use, but also distinguishes that portal from the existing informal consumer complaint process so as to minimize possible confusion.