CRTC Fines And Citations

In the past, the CRTC has issued citations and fines to Canadian air duct companies for violating the National Do Not Call list. Here are some examples:

TopClass Air Duct Cleaning Inc. - Violations of the Unsolicited Telecommunications Rules

4 November 2010

"In this decision, the Commission imposes an administrative monetary penalty of $6,000 on TopClass Air Duct Cleaning Inc. [Scarborough, Ontario] for initiating telemarketing telecommunications (a) to consumers whose residential telecommunications numbers were registered on the National Do Not Call List (DNCL), and (b) initiating the telecommunications when it had not subscribed to the National DNCL and had not paid all applicable fees to the National DNCL operator, in violation of the Unsolicited Telecommunications Rules." Read more...

TopClass Home Services Inc. - Violations of the Unsolicited Telecommunications Rules

4 November 2010

"In this decision, the Commission imposes an administrative monetary penalty of $3,000 on TopClass Home Services Inc. for initiating telemarketing telecommunications (a) to consumers whose residential telecommunications numbers were registered on the National Do Not Call List (DNCL), (b) when it had not registered as a telemarketer with the National DNCL operator, and (c) when it was not a registered subscriber of the National DNCL and had not paid all applicable fees to the National DNCL operator, in violation of the Unsolicited Telecommunications Rules." Read more...

Tri-Dell Clean Air Systems Inc. - Violations of the Unsolicited Telecommunications Rules

4 June 2010

"In this decision, the Commission imposes administrative monetary penalties totalling $3,000 on Tri-Dell Clean Air Systems Inc. for three voice telemarketing telecommunications initiated on its behalf to consumers whose telecommunications numbers were registered on the National Do Not Call List, in violation of the Unsolicited Telecommunications Rules." Read more..

When it comes to foreign telemarketing calling Canadians, Andrea Rosen, the CRTC's Chief of Compliance and Enforcement, says they're working in partnership with other countries and agencies to find a solution.

Here is what she told Marketplace co-host Tom Harrington during the interview.

"We have an International Do Not Call Network. We reach out to our partners. We have, in other circumstances, to Mexico and to India, to get their assistance because we do not have jurisdiction in those countries. And when we do, and when we can locate the people, we certainly take action.
I think that it's important to complain to other agencies. There are the police, there's the Competition Bureau, there's the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre. These people are actually tasked, as their core mandate, with looking at fraudulent telemarketing, which this is... We do work together. We do work together. We inform our partners of what we are hearing and we convey to them the information that can be used in their investigations, but we don't control their investigations."

Andrea Rosen also discusses their aim to find a solution to the telemarketing problem.

"It is a problem for all of law enforcement when we have spoofed numbers. What are doing is trying to find a way around the technology. We are actually working with the industry to see what we can do to improve the ability of law enforcement to find and detect where the calls are coming from, but also to stop them from coming in the first place.

"Well if we find a technology solution, we'll be able to do something about it. And we are working with industry, and we are working our counterparts in other countries. The FTC, for example, just had a summit on this kind of technology, and they are leading an initiative to find a solution to the problem."

"...No one has the power of changing anything when spoofing is in play. I don't care who the agency is. There's no way to determine who the person is that's calling and from what location, if the number is spoofed. We do need to be based in evidence. We can't take the case without the evidence. So the fact that we know it might be coming from offshore, if we can't identify the party we cannot take action. And even in taking those actions, since we don't have jurisdiction outside of this country, we would have to have cooperation from our partners to be able to do that. And stopping somebody from calling doesn't stop the fraud. So we are only one element in the chain."