Undisclosed
Settlement
TCPA class action against the Los Angeles Times. Final approval granted 2014.
The Welk Resort Group. located in San Diego has sued VO Financial, its CEO Adam Lacerda, and co-founder Ashley Lacerda in Federal Court, claiming that VO Financial made “repeated and harassing phone calls” to Welk’s timeshare owners to “fleece” them and the resort.
According to the complaint: “VO Financial falsely represents itself as a ‘timeshare research and resolution firm that offers mortgage reduction programs and timeshare rental services. However, in reality, VO Financial uses a variety of false pretenses to convince timeshare owners to pay them money instead of making their loan or maintenance fee payments to Welk Resort. VO Financial then pockets the money they take from the timeshare owners, causing the timeshare owners to default on their contractual obligations to Welk.”
“VO telemarketers use a variety of approaches in their sales calls,” the complaint states. “In some calls, VO Financial tries to build upon the goodwill that Welk has spent years developing with its owners by falsely suggesting that VO Financial is associated with Welk.” For example, VO has misled Welk owners into believing that it was performing a customer service satisfaction survey (so that it could acquire confidential information about Welk owners’ accounts), has falsely claimed to be a collection agency contracted by Welks, has falsely accused Welk of selling its customer information to VO Financial, has falsely accused Welk of illegal lending practices, and has led Welk owners to believe that paying money to VO Financial would eliminate the need for them to pay Welk. All of these ruses share a common goal: to either scare or persuade Welk owners into paying money to VO Financial.”
Make sure that you are 100% certain about who you are speaking with before ever sending anyone money. Also, if you are being harassed by telemarketers even after telling them to stop, in violation of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, (TCPA) you may be entitled to compensation. Please give my office, The Law Offices of Todd M. Friedman a call at (877) 449-8898 for a free consultation.
