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Texas Resident Has Now Endured Over 1,000 Illegal Robocalls: Amended Complaint

Timothy Aguilar has now received more than 1,000 illegal “robo/nuisance, spoofed, artificial bot voice telemarketing calls,” up from more than 700 in October, said his amended Telephone Consumer Protection Act complaint Wednesday (docket 4:23-cv-03988) in U.S. District Court for Southern…

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Texas in Houston. Aguilar's number has been listed on the national do not call registry since about 2011, it said. The case evolves from a campaign by Network Insurance Senior Health Division (NISHD) and Berken Media to market their services through pre-recorded and “spoofed” telemarketing calls “in plain violation of the TCPA.” Bandwidth, Peerless Networks and Onvoy have “initiated and or facilitated” the calls with their VoIP call services technology “to further NISHD’s and Berken’s telemarketing onslaught of robocalls” to Aguilar “on a consistent & daily basis,” said the pro se plaintiff. “A percentage” of the spoofed robocalls placed to Aguilar’s cellphone number on behalf of Berken Media and NISHD have the same or similar “marketing phone script” and prerecorded messages attributable to Berken and NISHD, with the “supporting role of the calling platforms of Onvoy, Bandwidth and Peerless,” the complaint said. The Pasadena, Texas, resident has been “harassed, cussed at" and victimized by the robocalls that solicited car warranties, medical and diabetic services, final expense services, home solar products and accident claim legal services, alleges the complaint. The amended complaint identified Berken as responsible for prerecorded robocalls for accident claim legal services. Aguilar has recorded many of the robocalls, he said. The plaintiff added a claim in the amended complaint, bringing the number of counts to five, for calls made to his cellphone using an artificial or prerecorded voice. Other claims are violations of the TCPA for using an automatic telephone dialing system and for calling a number on the national DNC list, violation of the Texas Business and Commercial Code and intentional infliction of emotional distress.