The Chattanooga Telemarketing Task Force

FTC attorneys, cross-deputized as Special U.S. Attorneys in the Eastern District of Tennessee, teamed with assistant U.S. Attorneys to create the Chattanooga Telemarketing Task Force to criminally prosecute fraudulent telemarketers in the state. To date, the Task Force is responsible for convicting and sentencing of 34 defendants. The Court increased several of the prison sentences of defendants who had targeted vulnerable people, including older Americans. In one case, the Court imposed a 10-year sentence on a notorious telemarketer. The Chattanooga Telemarketing Task Force defendants were ordered to pay more than $13 million in restitution. The Department of Justice (DOJ) says this project turned Chattanooga--one of the top centers of fraudulent telemarketing activity--into a city with little or no such activity. In recognition of this effort, DOJ honored the FTC with its John Marshall Award for interagency cooperation in support of litigation.

Operation Jackpot

In July 1996, the FTC, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, and 16 state Attorneys General launched a coordinated civil law enforcement "sweep" targeting fraudulent prize promotions and recovery rooms with 56 varied law enforcement actions. The FTC worked with these state officials to identify injured consumers and obtain evidence, including taped sales pitches, for use in over 40 state enforcement actions. Several FTC actions that were closely coordinated with the FBI and offices of U.S. Attorneys stopped over $20 million in annual sales.

Statistics indicate that cooperative and sustained law enforcement efforts are effective in reducing prize promotion fraud and raising consumer awareness. Every year, the National Association of Attorneys General surveys state consumer protection authorities for the top 10 consumer complaint categories. Prize promotion schemes ranked fifth on NAAG's Top 10 List in 1994-95, but did not even qualify for the 1995-96 list. While prize promotion complaints continue to be the largest category of complaints logged in to the FTC/NAAG Telemarketing Complaint System, the volume of complaints in 1996 dropped to half the record high volume recorded prior to Operation Senior Sentinel in December 1995.