The war on car warranty robocalls

The shady extended-warranty callers dial the wrong number

“If you have a pulse,” and a telephone, said Newsday in an editorial, chances are you’ve been hit up by “unscrupulous salespeople” trying to sell you an extended auto warranty. Luckily, the companies made a bad call—to New York Sen. Charles Schumer’s personal cell phone, on the Senate floor. With Schumer complaining to the Federal Trade Commission, perhaps these robocallers will finally be “put on hold—permanently.”

Schumer certainly isn’t the first harassed caller to contact the FTC, said Jeff Gelles in The Philadelphia Inquirer. If you get robocalled, be wary. Some of the callers are “international scam artists trolling for identity-theft victims,” and even the companies offering service contracts are probably trying to scam you. Unless you preauthorize them, all auto-dial calls to your cell phone are illegal.

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