SmartMatch Insurance Hit with Class Action Over Alleged ‘Senior Medical Group’ Robocalls

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A proposed class action claims SmartMatch Insurance Agency, LLC has placed unlawful robocalls to consumers’ cell phones without prior express consent to do so.

The plaintiff, an Arkansas resident, claims to have received roughly a dozen prerecorded telemarketing calls from SmartMatch, purporting to be from “Senior Medical Group,” even though he never provided permission for the company to place automated calls to his cell phone.

The 11-page lawsuit alleges the calls violated the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA), a federal law that prohibits companies from using an artificial or prerecorded voice to make non-emergency telemarketing calls to a cell phone number unless the recipient has provided their prior express consent to receive the communications. Moreover, the statute prohibits companies from placing telemarketing calls to phone numbers listed on the National Do Not Call Registry, according to the suit.

The plaintiff, whose phone number has allegedly been listed on the National Do Not Call Registry since 2005, says the calls he received from SmartMatch were all placed using the same “spoofed” number to hide the caller’s identity. Per the lawsuit, a prerecorded voice stated that the caller was with “Senior Medical Group,” a false name purportedly used by the defendant to “conceal its true identity.”

The plaintiff says he finally responded to a prerecorded message on March 27 in order to identify the caller and was told that the call aimed to help reduce costs that “seniors experience.” According to the case, the prerecorded nature of the call was confirmed when the plaintiff asked, “Are you a real person?” and another recorded message played.

The suit relays that the plaintiff eventually spoke with a live person who purported to be a “professional Medicare Advisor” and informed the man that SmartMatch could help reduce the cost of deductibles, copays and prescription medications.

The lawsuit says SmartMatch relies on prerecorded telemarketing calls to drum up new business and has previously been sued for alleged violations of the TCPA.

The plaintiff looks to represent anyone in the U.S. to whose cell phone (or other number for which they’re charged for a call) SmartMatch or an agent acting on its behalf placed a telemarketing call within the four years prior to the lawsuit’s filing and through trial using a prerecorded message similar to the one used to call the plaintiff.

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