TMCnet News

No Tolerance for Telemarketing Scams in Canada
[October 03, 2005]

No Tolerance for Telemarketing Scams in Canada


By GLENN J. KALINOSKI
Executive Editor, Customer Inter@ction Solutions

The message coming out of Canada is clear: those engaging in telemarketing scams risk spending some time in prison as an investigation by the nation's Competition Bureau into a deceptive telemarketing scam led to a telemarketer being sentenced to jail.

Justin Pold of Montreal, who was in charge of the directories scam for International Business Directories while operating from call centers in Toronto, Montreal and St. John's, Newfoundland, was sentenced to 18 months in prison, according to the Bureau.





The Bureau said that not-for-profit organizations as well as businesses and government agencies in Canada, the U.S. and the UK were contacted by telemarketers claiming to be the regular supplier of office supplies, or were renewing a business directory order. The telemarketers failed to disclose material information, such as the terms and conditions of delivery, which included a 20 percent return fee. Businesses would then receive office supplies or directories that they would not have ordered were it not for these false and misleading representations, the Bureau said.


Also charged were corporations that operated under several businesses. These companies generated sales of over $100 million during a six-year period.

Other individuals involved in the scam have been sentenced.

Glenn J. Kalinoski is Executive Editor for Customer Inter@ction Solutions magazine ( http://www.cismag.com ).

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