I received a call from an automated dialer on Sunday, November 9 on my cell phone. Fortunately, my cell has caller ID and saved the number the call came in on. The call traces back to an address in New Port Richey, Florida. Because I was unable to answer the phone, the call went to voice mail.
The call purported to be from a company calling itself "Frankly Speaking Inc., " allegedly an organization dedicated to "saving the children" from drug use and abuse. The automated system gave my voice mail a chance to terminate the call - since it didn't, my voice mail was then informed that my credit card would be debited $9.95 for two magazine subscriptions. It also gave me the opportunity to call 877-437-2800 to cancel the soon to be order.
I called 877-437-2800, and got "Frankly Speaking Inc.'s" answering machine. They informed me that they would be in, Monday through Friday, through 5 pm central time. I didn't leave a message. I then called the New Port Richey number and got a busy signal. I tried calling that number several times through out the day - finally getting through, and was told that I hadn't gotten any phone call from that number. The person was adamant that there wasn't an autodialer at that address.
So, I started doing some investigation. I found their website, as well as a website purporting to be affiliated with Frankly Speaking - http://newleaftransitionhouse.com. I then began searching for the physical address listed by both websites, specifically 422 West Oglethorpe Blvd.
I found this address was listed as an Economy Inn in Albany, GA. I called them, and asked if they were aware of either Frankly Speaking or New Leaf using them as a business address. They were aware of it, but said that neither organization had been there in the last month.
I went through searching for the phone numbers that they have listed on the website, as well as those in the DNS lookup. I've found them going to different private addresses in Albany, as well as to a Chinese restaurant in the same city.
My e-mails to this company's contacts (as listed in the DNS lookup) have gone unanswered. The next step is my attorney general, as well as the attorney general's of Florida (where the autodialer originated), and Georgia, where the company's permanent address is alleged to be.
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