Tuesday, June 16, 2009

"Your Warranty Is Expiring" Scammers Exposed

Odds are if you have a phone, you have gotten one or more of the "your warranty may be expiring" robocalls. These scam calls have spread across America like a Biblical plague and for a time it seemed like there was no way to stop them. But the scammers have been found and now details are leaking out about the con-men who bilked many out of hard-earned cash.

— Christopher D. Cowart, 47, of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., owns Transcontinental Warranty, a Delaware company based in Fort Lauderdale. A graduate of Southeastern Louisiana University, Cowart likes to read, travel and play golf in his spare time. He also maintains a Facebook page and uses a LinkedIn profile to advertise his latest business ventures.

— James A. Dunne, 36, of Daytona Beach, Fla., owns Florida-based Voice Touch with his wife, Maureen. Dunne has a checkered legal past, including charges of filing a false report of a bomb that landed him six months in jail in 1991. He was most recently arrested in 2001 for indecent exposure, but those charges were later dismissed.

— Maureen E. Dunne, nee Maureen Geisen, is James Dunne's wife. Little information can be found pertaining to her.

— Damian P. Kohlfeld, 35, of Valparaiso, Ind., is the owner of Network Foundations, which is based in Chicago. Kohlfeld allegedly supplied the technical know-how for the alleged telemarketing scheme employed by all three companies. The Arizona State University graduate has more than a decade of experience writing software and building computer networks. His latest hit, according to the FTC, was a "spoofing" device that tricked caller ID systems.
It appears these scammers underestimated the outrage of the average American, and are now looking at a long, unpleasant court trial before several years in prison.

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