On Friday, I received a call from 351-300-0683 which my phone identified as suspected spam. The caller ID showed up as “Ms. Leila’s NeighborSchool”, which I can find no evidence of on the internet so I suspect it no longer exists and the phone number was reassigned.
I declined the call, which sent it to voicemail. The caller left this message:
Four notes:
- Area code 351 is not used in Cambridge.
- My name isn’t “Timothy”.
- I’ve never been a customer of Cambridge Honda.
- “Roger” is an AI.
Roger also sent a text message:
Just for kicks I called the number and had a conversation with “Roger”. Summarizing (the responses from the AI were significantly longer than how I’ve written them below):
Me: Are you a person or an AI?
AI: I’m an AI.
Me: 351 isn’t a Cambridge area code, and the number you’re calling from came up as Ms. Leila’s NeighborSchool. Why is that?
AI: I’m on a separate number from the dealership. I can’t tell you why the caller ID came up the way it did. If you want to confirm I’m legitimate you can call the dealership at their listed number.
Me: Where did Cambridge Honda get info about the cars I own? I’m not a Cambridge Honda customer.
AI: I can’t tell you where Cambridge Honda got your info. If you’re concerned about your privacy you can decline to share any further information with me.
Me: Please tell Cambridge Honda that I will never do business with any company that uses AI to cold-call me. <click>
I’d put the odds at approximately zero that the AI will pass on my message to Cambridge Honda, because it obviously would not benefit the people who sold this AI cold-calling system to Cambridge Honda to pass on such messages.
Cold calls inviting people to sell their cars isn’t a new tactic for car dealerships. But before, it was a static recording, not an AI. The AI method is even less human work for the dealership, because the AI handles the initial interaction with the customer, collects needed information, and passes it on to a human to close the deal.
These calls are fraud. The AI would not have identified itself as an AI if I hadn’t asked. That means Cambridge Honda is deceiving the people they call to obtain financial benefit, which is the legal definition of fraud.
These calls are also totally illegal under the TCPA (Telephone Consumer Protection Act)! And there’s a private right of action, i.e., I can sue Cambridge Honda in small claims court for $500. And since my phone number is on the national do-not-call register, that makes it a willful violation, which means I can sue them for triple damages, $1,500. So I could file a small-claims suit today and make $1,500 in a few months.
But even better, this is such a clear-cut case that first I’m going to reach out to a few class-action lawyers and see if any of them are interested in pursuing this as a class action instead of an individual small-claims suit. I intend to make Cambridge Honda feel as much pain as I can for breaking the law.
If you received this call too, let me know. The more plaintiffs we can round up for a class action, the better!
