Spanish-speaking consumers are being targeted on their residential and mobile phones by scam artists offering a “free” English course. According to recent complaints to the Office of the Attorney General, callers are posing as employees of a purported nonprofit agency and claiming that call recipients could qualify for a “free” federal government English course. The scam artists ask unsuspecting customers for their personal information and the personal information of three friends as references.
A few days later, a representative of the phony nonprofit organization calls interested customers and tells them they did not qualify for a “free” course after all. Call recipients are asked to pay $500 for the so-called course. In some cases, customers are told they did qualify, but they nonetheless need to pay $500 for the course. In either case, if the customers decide not to take the course after initially agreeing to take it, the scam artists insist a binding, verbal contract exists and that the customers must pay.
In some instances, the scammers will tell call recipients the course has been sent to them through an express delivery service, even though customers never receive any merchandise. The scammers call customers repeatedly to insist on payment. To add further pressure, some call recipients are told they have been sued by the nonprofit for non-payment and that they now have a court date.
The Office of the Attorney General urges Texans to exercise caution when dealing with telephone sales calls.
To stop calls from telemarketers, Texans should register residential and mobile telephone numbers with both state and federal do-not-call lists. Enroll with Texas’ do-not-call list at www.texasnocall.com and the federal government’s list at www.donotcall.gov. The registrations are effective several weeks after enrollment.
Scam artists do not respect customers’ legal right not to be called after their phone numbers are registered, so Texans should always be suspicious of unsolicited sales calls. The best way to deal with unsolicited calls is to hang up on them.
Texans who believe they have been victimized by a fraudulent telemarketers or suspect violations of the Texas no-call list can file a complaint with the OAG at (800) 252-8011 or online at www.texasattorneygeneral.gov.
