Hot Leads (sold leads to First Magnus) is STILL faxing
Despite Being Illegal, “The Hot Lead” Company of Texas Still Sends Unsolicited Spam Faxes
Despite Being Illegal, “The Hot Lead” Company of Texas Still Sends Unsolicited Spam Faxes
March 9, 2007 4:51 p.m. EST
Linda Young - All Headline News Staff Writer
West Palm Beach, FL (AHN) - Although unsolicited fax advertisements are illegal, barred by the federal Telephone Consumer Protection Act, companies still spam broadcast faxes that many recipients view as junk.Worse, the unwanted faxes keep fax machines tied up wasting a lot of ink and paper, as well as tying up telephone lines.
Individuals as well as businesses complain about the unwanted spam faxes.
All those things were reasons that Congress created a law in 1991 that prohibited faxing unsolicited advertisement without “prior express invitation or permission” from the fax recipient.
One company that has ignored that law is known by many names and has been in and out of courts in several states. The Hot Lead Company of Texas, led by Greg Horne, president, is in plenty of hot water.
In May 2006, the Federal Communications Administration accused Hot Lead of violating the nation’s telecommunications act, citing half a dozen complaints against it.
But before changing its name to Hot Lead the company had racked up complaints and legal action doing business as American Blast Fax, and it’s owners were Mike Horne aka Michael G. Horne aka Michael Gregory Horne and Greg Horne according to JunkFax.com.
In a statement on its Web site JunkFax.com said: “Despite losing millions in court (judgments they never pay), and despite numerous injunctions (that they all ignore), they just change the name of their company and do the same fax broadcasting over and over and over again. I personally get their faxes and I get more complaints about them than any other company on the entire website.”
The Minnesota Attorney General wrote a letter dated Sept. 11, 2006, concerning the Hot Lead company. It was in response to a complaint that Mike Horne and Greg Horne and their companies were violating a Sept. 2002 Minnesota injunctive order and still sending out junk faxes under the company name My Hot Leads. The Attorney General wrote that the Hornes’s companies were known as The Hot Lead Company, My Hot Leads or Sunbelt Communications.
During a telephone interview Scott Nickenson, who only identified himself as an employee, confirmed that Hot Leads, My Hot Leads and Sunbelt Marketing were all company names where he worked, along with many others that he would not list. He also confirmed that Greg Horne was the president of all the companies.
What he wouldn’t confirm was where Hot Leads, etc., obtained the numbers they sent faxes to, or on what basis they chose the businesses that they spam-fax.
Hot Leads has sent several unsolicited spam-faxes offering hot leads for business that sell mortgages, health insurance and life insurance to AHN, which is in the business of reporting the news.
When AHN told Nickerson that, and asked him why Hot Leads sent a news agency numerous faxes advertising hot leads for mortgage and insurance customers he referred AHN to manager Steve Faulkner. Last week Faulkner skirted those questions and has not returned calls from AHN.
A woman who answered the phone said that Hot Leads was located in Dallas, Texas, but she would not give an address.
JunkFax.com lists these as the company names that Hot Leads also uses:
American Blast Fax
CMG Marketing LLC
Cammas Group LLC
RMG Communications LLC
Dallas Doorhanger
American Life Quotes, LLC
The Fax Guide, Inc
American Quick Quote LLC
Sunbelt Communication and Marketing LLC
Sunbelt Marketing
American Blast Fax
They made a mistake when they referenced junkfax.com, it is http://junkfax.ORG/. Other than that, quite informative. I knew I would have been wasting my time going after them instead of First Magnus—they don’t pay the judgments and they ignore the injunctions.
And the regulaters are doing WHAT?
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