Telemarketers arrested, fined

Those arrested were charged with telemarketing without a license, a third-degree felony.

[small business owner]

You mention only 5 names of the individuals who were arrested and your article said 12 people were arrested.

In the interest of full disclosure reporting and absence of malice I would like you the post the information on the other 7 individuals and post a correction on this article in your newspaper.

When you only report half of the story it sounds like biased reporting and makes the public question your motivations.

It appears easier for the state to go into the licensed, taxpaying business owner establishment to find an infraction than go after the underground companies they should be rooting out, kind of reminds you why a speed trap is an easier revenue generator than catching and punishing real criminals. This is a $50.00 license requirement that the state has changed the law on which used to give the business owner a fair and reasonable timeframe to acquire the license. They now state the license must be in place before the employee can start working?

The dept. of agriculture and consumer services division has 3 people processing thousands of pending applications and the process can take up to 2 months to see a completion and return of said license to the employer.

As news reporting goes this probably does not get you the sound bites for consumer advocates to warrant print in your paper, but it would be nice to see the complete details of a story rather than slandering someone's name in your paper for the sake of sensational reporting.

signed,

Taxpaying Citizen
of The Great State of Florida

[Heidi]

I don't care about the peoples names, I just want the bad ones to be fined to **** and back so they will think twice calling someone on a do not call list.

When are they going to go after the licensed problem telemarketeers. All the telemarketeers that contact you even after placing your number on the "Don't Call Lists" should be fined out of business if they repeatedly do it. I am on both State and Federal do not call lists, and I still get 7-9 calls a week. They all say "wer'e not selling", so we can call. As far as I am concerned unless I give you my number, you don't need to call it. A good example is, my daughter will be senior next year, and already I am getting calls wanting to sell me SAT prep programs, tutoring, etc. The worst part is that they know her name and school and pretend that she contacted them. My husband accidentally answered one of these calls last week thinking to give the telemarketeer a piece of his mind, but the guy immediately asked for "the parents of ****" and my husband got worried, he was afraid something had happened to her at work. Luckily, I came in then and took the phone from him and did give the jerk a piece of my mind.(I went thru all these calls 2 years ago when our son graduated so I knew the scam)

[Law Abiding]

A few more fines such as this will help slow down these blood suckers.