Georgia telemarketer to pay FTC $300,000 for dropped, unauthorized calls

The president of Georgia-based telemarketing company JAK Productions, Inc. must pay $300,000 to settle Federal Trade Commission allegationsthat the company abandoned millions of telemarketing calls and also dialed thousands of consumers who didn't want to be bothered.

JAK and its president, John Keller, called consumers as "telefunders," or for-profit telemarketers, seeking donations on behalf of charities. The FTC alleges in its complaint that JAK violated the Telemarketing Sales Rule by placing more than two million automated calls but then abandoning them when someone answered. The company is based in Atlanta but used call centers in West Virginia.