How telemarketing really works - the Edgar Barboza declaration
- Peter Schneider
- 1 day ago
- 8 min read
Something positive about bad situations like the TCPA plaintiff Chet Wilson explosion is things come to light that are otherwise hidden. Freeway Insurance Services is trying to bury Mr. Wilson so they are putting things in writing that can educate the rest of us. I am just going to quote from Mr. Barboza's declaration so we can learn now telemarketing really works.
Mr. Barboza is the "Head of Digital Transformation" at Confie Holding II Co, the parent company of Freeway Insurance Services of America LLC who Mr. Wilson sued for unwanted telemarketing calls. I'll put my comments in blue.
1. My name is Edgar Barboza. I am over the age of 18 and competent to give this declaration. If called to testify, I could and would competently testify to the facts stated herein.
2. I am the Head of Digital Transformation at Confie Holding II Co., the parent company of Freeway Insurance Services of America, LLC (“Freeway”). In that role, I am familiar with the processes by which Confie and its subsidiaries, like Freeway, operate their websites and obtain consent from consumers who wish to be contacted about insurance offers. I looked at Freeway's website at it is a cut above the typical telemarketer page supposedly offering insurance quotes [text messages soliciting auto insurance usually promote a generic website advertising insurance and asking for the consumer's information needed for a quote, and then after receiving it almost never provides a quote, just a billion phone calls]. So I suspect Freeway doesn't hire telemarketers to promote their own homepage.
3. In the regular course of business, I have access to, and personal knowledge of, the business records generated and maintained by Confie and its subsidiaries. [Notice the careful wording. I see telemarketers in the auto insurance space creating a new subsidiary for each essentially fake and disposable website selling auto insurance. The illegal phone calls direct consumers to these disposable websites and then when you sue one they threaten to go bankrupt if you don't take a few bucks in a settlement. I don't know if Freeway is doing this but just reporting what we see] The information contained herein is based upon my personal knowledge along with my review of the business records, policies, and/or electronic databases and reports generated and maintained in the ordinary course of Confie’s regularly conducted business and made at or near the time of the events described herein.
4. In my role, I work closely with Confie’s third-party marketing and lead-generation vendors, including EverQuote, and third-party verification partners, like Jornaya. I am familiar with how data from those vendors is generated, transmitted to Confie, stored in Confie’s systems, and relied upon by Confie in its regular course of business. Confie routinely relies on the accuracy of these records for compliance, auditing, and consumer-consent verification purposes. Sellers benefiting from illegal telemarketing also outsource the fake information gathering as much as they can.
5. Freeway is an insurance company that offers a range of insurance services to consumers. Do they? Or do they sell other companies' insurance?
6. Consumers can request insurance quotes or other insurance services from Freeway in a variety of ways.
7. Freeway maintains its own website, where consumers may request quotes and additional information regarding Freeway’s products. I am very curious if Freeway has actual insurance agents working for them, or like all these other bottom feeders, they promise a quote but only collect consumer's information and then tell them 'hey, now go over there, those folks actually sell insurance'.
8. Freeway also contracts with over a dozen third-party vendors that operate websites where consumers seeking insurance may request quotes. When a consumer submits an inquiry through one of those websites, the vendor provides the lead to Freeway. This is the typical telemarketing model we see.
9. Freeway then communicates with those consumers through the methods to which they consent, including email, text message, and phone call.
10. Freeway contacts only individuals who inquire about its services and provide
express consent to be contacted.
11. Freeway maintains policies and procedures to ensure that it contacts only individuals who have requested insurance quotes. These procedures include requiring all lead providers with whom Freeway contracts to obtain express written consent from each consumer. It sounds to me that all Freeway requires is at minimum a fake lead.
12. As an additional safeguard, Freeway scrubs its contact lists against the National Do Not Call Registry (“NDNCR”) and maintains its own internal Do Not Call list. So if a Lead is on the NDNCR they don't call the lead? I find that unlikely.
13. To ensure compliance with the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (“TCPA”), Freeway also requires its lead vendors to provide a certificate confirming the authenticity of the lead and the associated consent. Where available, vendors are also required to provide information such as the IP address, location from which the inquiry was submitted, and the browser used to submit the lead. In times past these "certificates of authenticity" came standard with IP address, operating system, and screen resolution. But recently we see the these "certificates of authenticity" no longer come standard with operating system, and screen resolution and I think it is because while someone's name and address and telephone number are easy to buy from data vendors, operating system, and screen resolution change all the time and often trip u the fake leads. Telemarketing industry solution? Stop collecting the operating system, and screen resolution.
14. Although not required by law, Freeway also reviews phone numbers to determine how many other companies purchased the same lead. This helps avoid contacting consumers who may already have been contacted by other insurance providers.
15. Leads received from third-party vendors are automatically transmitted to Confie’s customer relationship management system, where they are stored along with associated consent data and verification tokens.
16. Freeway requires each lead vendor to use compliant consent language on its lead forms. However, it does not control or dictate the precise language used in vendors’ lead forms or terms of service. Accordingly, the consent language may vary across different lead forms.
17. One such third-party lead vendor with which Freeway contracts is EverQuote, which operates several websites that connect consumers who are interested in purchasing auto insurance with insurance companies that match the consumers’ needs, including usautoinsurancenow.com and auto.everquote.com.
18. EverQuote also contracts with Jornaya, a third-party verification company, to maintain a log of users who submit lead forms on the Website. For each submission, the log records the date and time of the submission, the user’s name, email address, phone number, and Zip Code. Why did they stop capturing the device operating system and screen resolution? Oh that's right, too often when the fake opt in got to court the operating system and screen resolution didn't match the consumer's device.
19. In the ordinary course of business, Jornaya automatically generates a Lead ID for each submission at or near the time the lead form is submitted. This certificate verifies that the information EverQuote claims was submitted through a lead form was, in fact, submitted through that form.
20. If an EverQuote lead does not contain a Jornaya Lead ID, which confirms Jornaya’s third-party verification of the submission, Confie does not accept that lead form into its system.
21. The EverQuote logs and Jornaya Lead IDs are incorporated into Confie’s own business records. Confie keeps these records in the ordinary course of its regularly conducted business activities and relies on them to verify consumer consent and to respond to litigation and regulatory inquiries.
22. Consumers who visit one of EverQuote’s websites are presented with a series of questions designed to gather information needed to provide an automobile insurance quote. This includes information such as the details of the consumer’s car, credit score, occupation, past accidents, and contact information.
23. When the consumer reaches the final page of the web flow, she is presented with a large button that states “Show My Quotes” or similar language, along with a notice requesting the consumer’s phone number and a disclosure stating that submitting the number provides written consent for Freeway to contact the consumer.
24. For example, the individual who submitted Plaintiff’s number on usautoinsurancenow.com was shown the following final page:
25. Each of Freeway’s third-party vendors manages their own websites. Those websites may contain different web flows, with different notices appearing at different stages throughout the process, as well as different terms of use and privacy policies.
26. The operators of these different websites routinely update their respective terms of use.
27. Many of Freeway’s third-party marketing partners require consumers to assent to their terms of use before submitting a contact request.
28. Many of those terms of use require the consumer to agree to an arbitration provision that specifically covers Freeway.
29. Regardless of specific wording used by a vendor, Freeway requires TCPA compliant disclosures and affirmative assent from the consumer and receives lead certifications documenting the consent obtained.
30. Confie’s internal records, maintained in the ordinary course of business, show that on June 4, 2024, someone visited usautoinsurancenow.com (the “Website”), which is operated by EverQuote, and submitted a lead form requesting auto insurance quotes for a 2019 Mitsubishi Outlander. That lead form included Plaintiff’s phone number, along with the name Dorianne Plageman and email address drp.work21@gmail.com.
31. In the ordinary course of business, I received a true and correct copy of the TrustedForm certificate from Jornaya for this lead submission. The certificate confirmed what Confie’s records already showed: that an individual entered Plaintiff’s phone number, along with a name, vehicle information, email address, and Zip Code on the Website and clicked “Show My Quotes,” thereby agreeing to the Website’s Terms of Use:
32. Confie’s records show that this lead was transmitted to Freeway through its standard lead-delivery process for EverQuote vendors and was entered into Freeway’s customer relationship management system.
33. By entering Plaintiff’s phone number and submitting the inquiry, that individual provided consent to be contacted by either EverQuote or one of its Marketing Partners, including Freeway.
34. Only after confirming that the lead complied with the TCPA, Freeway contacted the phone number provided in the submission.
35. Confie’s records reflect that Freeway sent text messages to the phone number provided in the submission on June 5, 6, and 8, 2024.
I can't prove anything specific against them, but Confie is very much tied into the telemarketing industry which is rotten to the court. My leading example is how these "certificate of authenticity" documents now drop the operating system and screen resolution of the supposed opt in device because their own information was being used against them in court. But on the flip side if Mr. Wilson was asking for calls, he's an idiot. Anything you do these days is watched and if a company really wants to do a deep dive, this will just be a starting point:
To determine who submitted the contact request form, Freeway has served or will shortly serve targeted written discovery seeking information about Plaintiff’s devices, phone records, IP addresses, iCloud access, communications with Heidarpour, Plaintiff’s history of submitting contact request forms, . . . Freeway has also requested or will soon request a forensic inspection of every electronic device Plaintiff used during the relevant period, noticed Plaintiff’s deposition, and served third-party discovery on Apple, Inc. and Plaintiff’s phone carrier.
If I was Freeway I would subpoena cell tower location records. Did you know that most modern cars store their GPS location as they move around? I'd subpoena that. Once I new where Mr. Wilson's phone and cars were at the supposed opt in times I would subpoena all the internet traffic and I would forensically examine every device in the vicinity. Just like telemarketers in their patters of fake opt ins, Freeway would just have to catch Mr. Wilson in a single mess up to crash his world.
Faking opt ins is bad for telemarketers and is bad for consumers. Don't do it, no matter what side of the isle you are on you won't get away with it once an attorney willing to spend money starts drilling down.
Got a Case Like This?
If you’ve encountered similar issues with telemarketers, debt collectors, or bankruptcy-related harassment, we might feature your story in a future blog post. Email your situation or legal filing to peter@nwdebtresolution.com or nathen@nwdebtresolution.com.
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Note: The opinions in this blog are mine (Peter Schneider) and do not constitute legal advice. If you're considering suing over illegal robocalls or Do Not Call list violations, contact me for a legal consultation.
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