(RTTNews) - Marriott International, Inc. (MAR) announced Tuesday that it has filed a lawsuit in federal court in Virginia against the unknown perpetrators (John Does) responsible for illegal and fraudulent "robocalls" misusing Marriott's name.
The suit claims these bad actors are using Marriott's brand for their own commercial gain in violation of state and federal laws. Marriott will aggressively pursue the identities of the robocallers to halt these illegal acts affecting Marriott customers and others.
Illegal robocalls are an abusive and deceptive form of telemarketing, with over 18 billion pre-recorded telephone calls in the U.S. in 2020. Four months into 2021, that figure has already reached 7.2 billion.
To induce consumers to purchase promotions, the robocallers falsely represent that they are agents or employees of Marriott. Illegal robocalls in the U.S. fraudulently claiming to be from Marriott increased dramatically in 2020 to a peak of seven million per month.
Marriott has leveraged the capabilities of two industry leaders in the fight against illegal robocalls: the Industry Traceback Group (ITG) and YouMail, Inc.
On December 3, 2020, Marriott updated and re-issued a public statement to confirm that Marriott is not responsible for the fraudulent robocalls, nor has it authorized them.
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