CURRAN CHARGES WINDOW CONTRACTOR WITH MAKING ILLEGAL TELEMARKETING CALLS

Attorney General J. Joseph Curran, Jr.’s Consumer Protection Division announced today that his office’s Consumer Protection Division has charged a Linthicum-based window contractor with making illegal telemarketing calls. The company, Chesapeake Window & Building, Inc.,700B West Nursery Road, Linthicum, Md., is charged with making telemarketing calls to Maryland consumers who had registered their phone numbers with the national do-not-call registry.

Since June 2003, consumers have had the ability to register their telephone numbers on the national do-not-call registry if they do not want to receive telemarketing calls from business with whom they have had no prior relationship. Businesses telemarketing goods or services to consumers are required to buy a database containing the phone numbers of consumers who have registered their phone numbers with the do-not-call registry. A business that calls a telephone number that has been registered on the do-not call database for at least three months is in violation of the Maryland Telephone Consumer Protection Act. The Division has charged Chesapeake Window with multiple violations of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act for calling consumers registered on the national do-not-call registry. More than 120 consumers have filed complaints against the company for unsolicited telemarketing calls since the do-not-call registry was first created in June 2003.

" Consumers now have the right to avoid calls from telemarketers if they do not want to receive them," said Curran.

The Attorney General’s Consumer Protection Division has requested an order requiring Chesapeake Window to stop making illegal telemarketing calls to consumers and to pay a civil penalty. A public hearing on the charges is scheduled for Wednesday, September 7, 2005, at 9:30 a.m. at the Office of Administrative Hearings, 11101 Gilroy Road in Hunt Valley, Maryland. Consumers who wish to file a complaint against Chesapeake Window for making telemarketing calls in violation of the consumer’s do-not-call registration may call the Consumer Protection Division at (410) 576-6569. Consumers who wish to register with the national do-not-call registry or report other businesses that are making illegal telemarketing calls can contact the Federal Trade Commission at 1-888-382-1222.

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