Law clerk makes huge break in $100 gift card / voucher telemarketing scam calls
- Peter Schneider
- Mar 6
- 6 min read
Updated: Jul 25
There is a long running $100 shopping rewards voucher / gift card / retail rebate scam out there. The people behind it claim they will send you some sort of card or voucher or certificate worth $100 and all they ask from you is $3.49 or similar small amount just for "shipping and handling". Lots of folks have experienced different parts of the elephant.
https://enewspaper.latimes.com/infinity/article_share.aspx?guid=9e8eb188-626f-411a-8842-b4b05b483570
My law clerk Nathen Barton has gotten a bunch of calls where the telemarketer is running the scam, and he spent a couple years investigating the entities allegedly behind it. He has paid the "shipping and handling" fee numerous times to see the pattern and players behind the operation. Many different alleged shell companies charge the cards, but the company managing the shell companies appears to be AG Marketing LLC out of Florida, and he identified what appears to be a king pin behind the operation, an Anthony George. In February of this year he filed a federal lawsuit #3:25-cv-05110 in the Western District of Washington against many of the entities behind the scam.
The lawsuit details many of the connections between the defendants and why Mr. Barton believes AG Marketing LLC and Anthony George are central figures in the operation of the $100 gift card scheme. I encourage you to read it for yourself and draw your own conclusion.
Separately Mr. Barton was doing research on carrier liability under the telephone consumer protection act. A Richard Zelma had sued essentially a phone carrier for it's alleged involvement in unwanted calls.
From the complaints there is no obvious connection (that I can see) but Mr. Zelma posted a declaration to the docket
1. On February 19, 2025, I received several calls from [201] 591-0847, on my second line ending in 8154. 2. I answered the first call and heard a prerecorded announcement about a free $100 gift card. 3. This type of telemarketing call has been around for about 10 years and is designed to bait the call recipient into providing the caller with their mailing address and credit card number, which is later charged for various unknown products. 4. The prerecorded announcement required that I press "1" to continue. Being familiar with the scam and not interested, I hung up. 5. After the first call, I received a series of immediate, repetitive calls from the same number, a pattern meeting the description of a “one-ring” phone scam. 6. I answered a second time and after listening to the same announcement as before, I pressed “1” and was connected to a live agent. 7. The agent was female, with a heavy Philippine, barely understandable accent, who attempted to obtain my credit card information under the guise of a free gift card offer from Prime Perks, a nonexistent entity. 8. After that agent was asked but provided false identity information, I hung up the call and immediately called the number back. A recorded announcement greeted my call with the same sales pitch as the previous incoming calls, indicating the calling number was active, in service, not spoofed and assigned to an unknown entity.
Mr. Barton recognized the similarities to his own case, called the [201] 591-0847 from Mr. Zelma's declaration, and found strong evidence it was the same $100 gift card scam.
Mr. Zelma filed a second declaration about a week later
1. On February 22, 2025, I submitted a Declaration to This Court, notifying it of the receipt of recent marketing call(s) originating from a number owned by the Defendants, IP Horizon and Michael Halperin. 2. Subsequently, I contacted the Defendants' counsel, informing them of the following: Gentlemen I received several calls today from 1-201-591-0847. The caller identified the company as Prime Perks. The number was active when called back. They called my second line ending in 8154. The carrier was identified as IP Horizon! Thank you Richard Zelma Plaintiff. 3. In response, Joseph ‘Joe’ Bowser, the Defendants' Telecom specialty lawyer admitted pro hac vice, replied as follows: Good morning, Mr. Zelma - that is an IP Horizon number, but it hasn’t been assigned to a customer since May 3, 2024. Thus, any inbound call you received “from” that number since then must have been spoofed. IP Horizon (and our other carrier-client defendants) have no knowledge or record of any outbound calls from that number—to you or anyone else—since May 3, 2024. With respect to your calls to that number – which, of course, the TCPA does not regulate — that number is among those in IP Horizon’s database of currently unassigned numbers to which one or more companies have contracted to receive the inbound calls coming into those unassigned numbers. I understand that you’re of the opinion that warehoused numbers must play a certain recording advising the calling party that the number is not in service. But, as evidenced by the fact that you’ve cited no such law or regulation, that is simply not the case. Thus, IP Horizon is within its rights to recover the costs of its numbering resources while it warehouses them before they are assigned to the next customer. But, in all events, any call you received after 5/3/24 ‘from’ 201-591-0847 must have been spoofed, and it never traversed IP Horizon’s (or any of our other clients’) networks. Best, Joe 4.The response from the Defendants' attorney is characterized by subterfuge, prevarication, and obfuscation, aimed at diverting attention from their clients' involvement and profit. 5.The assertion that marketing calls did not traverse IP Horizon’s network is inconsequential. 6.The Defendants claim that the number has been out of service since May 3, 2024, a period exceeding nine months. This claim does not explain how a return call to that number received a prerecorded marketing response. 7. If the number was indeed out of service, as Defendants alleged in connection with additional calls in Plaintiff’s Amended Complaint, any call to that number should result in either S.I.T. Tones or an announcement stating, 'the number called is not in service.' Such announcement was not heard. 8.When I called the number back, which was allegedly not in use, I reached a “free gift card” announcement identical to the one heard when I originally answered the call[s].
Mr. Zelma hit the nail on the head, call spoofing is when
a caller deliberately falsifies the information transmitted to your caller ID display to disguise their identity. Scammers often use neighbor spoofing so it appears that an incoming call is coming from a local number, or spoof a number from a company or a government agency that you may already know and trust. If you answer, they use scam scripts to try to steal your money or valuable personal information, which can be used in fraudulent activity.
IP Horizon appears to have let the cat out of the bag - who else could be answering the incoming calls the $100 voucher telemarketers are feeding off of? But the investigation is still in its early stages.
Are you getting calls from the $100 voucher telemarketers? I would encourage you to reach out to Mr. Barton if you have any information that would show who all is responsible for the scam. Here are two of the common voices of the pitch:
*** Update
Getting a default judgment against telemarketers can be harder than it looks. See the order denying the first attempt at getting one.
Hopefully the second attempt gets the job done.
Would you like a free case review? Do you have a question or a telemarketing, debt collection, or bankruptcy case that would make a great blog article? We might even review your pro-se complaint or motion in a blog post. Email peter@nwdebtresolution.com and/or nathen@nwdebtresolution.com and we may answer it for everyone!
Are telemarketers harassing you in Washington, Oregon, or Montana? My Washington State TCPA plaintiff law practice can help, just give us a call at 206-800-6000 or email peter@nwdebtresolution.com.
The thoughts, opinions and musings of this blog are those of Peter Schneider, a consumer advocate and Washington State plaintiff's TCPA attorney at Northwest Debt Resolution, LLC. They are just that, his thoughts, opinions and musings and should be treated as such. They are not legal advice. If you are looking to file a lawsuit for TCPA violations and unwanted calls please contact me for a consultation.
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