Jason Abraham is bad man. You don’t want him in your life at all. If he or his minions call, hang up.
He violates the “Do Not Call” law, scams and bullies vulnerable elderly people into giving him money, and is a repeat offender, according to the Federal Trade Commission, which prosecuted him in federal court.
Abraham is an instigator of those “medical alert” scams you get annoying robocalls from. (I strongly suspect those calls come from many would-be scammers, not just him.) These crooks use computers to robo-dial millions of phone numbers, hoping a tiny percentage of the calls will produce a “sale.” But Abraham wasn’t just peddling overpriced junk with high-pressure sales tactics. According to prosecutors, his telemarketers also told marks they owed money for services they hadn’t ordered, sent phony invoices, and bullied people who didn’t pay.
Today a federal judge fined Abraham and his company, Instant Response Systems, $3.4 million; according to CBS News, “The court judgment was based on the amount of ‘unjust gains’ Abraham and his company were deemed to have collected through the scheme. That money, if retrieved, can be used to repay victims.”
That’s a mighty big “if.” Good luck with trying to collect the fine; does anyone believe a crook capable of running a scam doesn’t know how to hide the loot? The judge should have sent this slimeball to prison; if he doesn’t have the authority then Congress should amend the law so he does.
I never buy anything from a phone solicitor. Those “deals” are, without exception, scams — at best you’ll get overpriced and poor-quality merchandise, and at worst they’ll simply disappear with your money. And I do everything I can to help authorities catch these thieves. I’m on the Do Not Call list, and when I get a telemarketing call, I report the caller’s number to the FTC here. You won’t get a response from the FTC, but the information you provide might help them track down a scumbag, and if they get enough complaints about a robocaller they’ll go after him.