Washington Sues Robocallers, Accusing Them Of Deceptive Messages

OLYMPIA, WA — An Oregon company that claims to sell a robocall-blocking service has been sued by Washington state, which accuses it of illegally robocalling Washingtonians.

Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson filed a lawsuit Wednesday against Corvallis-based Global Grid Telecom, alleging that, between May 2017 and December 2019, the company made 54,410 calls into Washington— including 46,332 to numbers on the federal Do Not Call Registry.

Not only did the anti-robocalling service resort to illegally robocalling Washingtonians to sell its business, but the Attorney General's Office says their service didn't really do anything:

Global Grid Telecom offered a telephone service called “MAX|Command” that, the company represented, would stop unwanted telephone calls when added to the customer’s CenturyLink telephone line. However, the service does not offer any unique features and its control features are already within CenturyLink’s voicemail system.

The robocalls hassled some Washingtonians more than others. According to Ferguson's suit, the company called 16,808 Washingtonians more than once, and one unfortunate soul received 23 robocalls from Global Grid Telecom.

The company specifically targeted CenturyLink customers, and Ferguson's suit claims the company tried to make their calls sound like official messages from CenturyLink. Some calls even referred to the service as an "upgrade" or new feature for their CenturyLink accounts, the suit says. If robocall recipients did subscribe, they were usually charged between $30 to $60 upfront, but would also be charged subscription fees totaling between $70 to $80 per year, according to the suit.

Ultimately, the suit says subscribers who did hand over their money would have their numbers added to a list of blocked numbers on a telephone line, which didn't actually stop robocalls from coming through.

Ferguson says his goal is to reclaim the money spent by Washingtonians.

“My office will continue to serve as a watchdog to protect Washingtonians from illegal robocalls,” Ferguson said. “Here is my message to deceptive robocallers: Immediately stop harassing Washingtonians, or we will hold you accountable.”

If successful, the Attorney General's Office says Global Grid Telecom could face a penalty of up to $7,500 per violation. In August 2020, Washington won a $10 million lawsuit against a Vancouver-based company that used deceptive advertisements and robocalls, and in March 2020, Ferguson and 39 other attorneys general won a suit against a robocaller for sham charities, earning $495,000, which was then given to legitimate charities.