Oct 31, 2001

Miss Cleo's Company Accused of Violating New York Telemarketing Law

By Joel Stashenko Associated Press Writer

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) - The marketers behind television psychic Miss Cleo were accused Wednesday of violating New York's "Do Not Call" telemarketing law more than 100 times in the past seven months.

C. Adrienne Rhodes, the executive director of the Consumer Protection Board, said Access Resource Services - also called the Psychic Readers Network (PRN) - may be subject to as much as $224,000 in fines.

According to the agency, Access-PRN misleads customers into thinking they can get a free psychic reading. But Rhodes said the "psychics" employed by Access-PRN can only be reached by dialing a 900 number at $3.99 a minute.

She also said the psychics seem more interested in keeping people on telephone than in giving them a reading.

"This so-called 'psychic' service appears to be a scam to keep people on the telephone for as long as possible," Rhodes said.

Calls to Access-PRN were referred Wednesday to attorney Joel Dichter, who didn't immediately return a request for comment.

Under the April 1 telemarketing law, New Yorkers sign up on a registry that prohibits unsolicited calls from marketers at certain hours and companies from making aggressive, confusing sales pitches over the telephone. More than 2 million people have signed up.

AP-ES-10-31-01 1648EST

This story can be found at : http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGAKEN1OHTC.html

-- Anonymous, November 01, 2001

Answers

with all the advertising mediums available, one would think that we wouldn't have to deal with sales calls to home.

If someone wants something, they can search it out themselves.

-- Anonymous, November 01, 2001