If you were targeted by one cruise line's fake survey calls, you could be in for some retribution, reports NBC News. Between August 2011 and August 2012, Caribbean Cruise Line, Vacation Ownership Marketing Tours, and The Berkeley Group allegedly violated the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCP) by making millions of illegal robocalls (to both cell phones and landlines) that promised a free cruise in exchange for completing a survey. Now millions of people could be eligible to score $500—for each and every call they received. But act fast—you must file your claim by the February 1st deadline, at freecruisecallclassaction.net.
The survey was said to be from "Political Opinions of America." Normally, actual political surveys are exempt from TCP—as long as they aren't trying to sell you something. But the lawsuit claimed Political Opinions of America was "not a legitimate survey organization or even a real company. It was simply a made-up name, a pretext for unsolicited telemarketing." The defendants do not admit to doing anything illegal, but they agreed to pay between $56-76 million to settle the suit.
According to NBC, the calls would go something like this:
"Hi, this is Bill from Political Opinions of America. This upcoming presidential election is the most important election in modern history. Your opinion and your vote matters. We are conducting a short 30-second survey and would like your valuable input. For participating, you will receive a two-day cruise for two people to the Bahamas at no charge, courtesy of one of our supporters."
If that rings a bell (and if you haven't already been contacted), check to see if your phone number is in this database. Not in there? You could still prove you got the calls with caller ID or phone records (look for these numbers).
