The number of filed civil robocall fraud lawsuits against Family First Life’s parent company has climbed to seven.

BehindMLM documented the fifth Family First Life robocall fraud lawsuit last August. Since then;

  • Nichols v. Integrity Marketing Group was filed on September 23rd, 2023
  • Newman v. Integrity Marketing Group was filed on April 19th, 2024

Plaintiff Terri Nichols filed her California suit against Integrity Marketing Group on September 23rd, 2023.

In her lawsuit Nichols accuses Integrity Marketing Group of violating the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA).

Nichols claims her residential phone number has been on the National Do Not Call Registry since March 2022. She also claims she “never consented to receive calls from Integrity Marketing”.

Despite that,

Plaintiff Nichols received multiple unsolicited telemarketing calls from the Defendant on May 13 (twice) and May 18, 2022.

The telemarketing calls all followed a similar script.

The caller identified if the Plaintiff had any supplemental Medicare insurance.

When the Plaintiff explained that she did not, the Defendant’s telemarketers asked about the Plaintiff’s current Medicare supplemental insurance.

The Defendant’s telemarketers then wanted to ask the Plaintiff other qualification questions to prepare a quote for her to purchase Medicare supplemental insurance.

This included her social security number.

The Plaintiff was not interested and so she ended the call.

Nichols alleges Integrity Marketing Group’s conduct

(A) invaded Plaintiff’s privacy and solitude;

(B) wasted Plaintiff’s time;

(C) annoyed Plaintiff;

(D) tied up Plaintiff’s phone line; and

(E) harassed Plaintiff.

In her filed Complaint, Nichols sought to represent a class of consumers subject to similar conduct.

Integrity Marketing Group filed a motion to dismiss Nichols’ Complaint on November 16th.

Following filing of an Amended Complaint on November 17th, Integrity Marketing Group filed a “stipulation of dismissal with prejudice” on December 8th, 2023.

This suggests Integrity Marketing Group reached a settlement with Nichols, the details of which were not made public.

Plaintiff Wes Newman filed his Illinois suit against Integrity Marketing Group on April 19th, 2024.

Newman also accuses Integrity Marketing Group of violating the TCPA.

Integrity’s TCPA policies and practices are ineffective, and Integrity fails to properly enforce them, which has caused Plaintiff and other consumers to incur TCPA violations on a massive scale.

Oftentimes, as in Plaintiff’s case, the consumer receives TCPA violations through multiple Integrity downlines, with no real ability to stop the calls due to the anonymous nature of the calling and Integrity’s refusal to properly coordinate TCPA compliance.

Newman claims he’s been receiving Integrity Marketing Group calls from agents using “fake names and spoofed numbers” since 2021.

Forty-one unsolicited telemarketing calls from Integrity Marketing Group are documented in Newman’s Complaint.

Although these calls in virtually every instant began with the caller using a generic, fake name, they trace to agents affiliated with Integrity partners, including

(1) at least two telemarketing calls that traced to Integrity subsidiary Connexion Point on November 19, 2021;

(2) at least two telemarketing calls that traced to Integrity subsidiary Berwick Insurance Group on December 7,
2021;

(3) at least one telemarketing call that traced to Integrity subsidiary Your Insurance Group on January 16, 2022; and

(4) approximately thirty-four or more telemarketing calls that traced to Integrity subsidiary Family First Life between February 1, 2022 and July 21, 2023.

Newman claims he complained to Integrity Marketing Group but to no avail.

Integrity should be held liable for these calls, even if it did not “initiate” them.

Despite knowing for years that its practices result in illegal calls, and that its internal do-not-call list is incomplete, it continues to accept business derived therefrom: Indeed, Plaintiff maintained direct contact with Integrity’s in-house and outside counsel over the course of several months to try to get these calls to stop, to no avail.

Specific to Family First Life, Newman alleges marketing calls beginning February 2022.

Plaintiff answered a call from [removed] on February 1, 2022, after which the caller identified herself as “Erica Smith with State Farm,” and proceeded to solicit Plaintiff for final expense insurance.

However, this reference to State Farm was a rouse: After Plaintiff answered several questions, he was transferred to an agent who identified himself as Michael Williams, for the purpose of trying to close a sale with Plaintiff.

Though he did not disclose Integrity or any of its affiliates initially, Mr. Williams texted Plaintiff his license information, which identified him as a Family First Life agent.

Mr. Williams identified the entity from which he received Plaintiff as a lead as LeadEngin.

When Plaintiff reached out to LeadEngin to try to discuss the unwanted calling, they ignored him.

Plaintiff complained about this call to Integrity’s in-house and outside counsel through an email on February 18, 2022.

Approximately twenty-nine Family First Life unsolicited marketing calls spanning February 2022 through July 2023 are also documented.

Newman alleges Integrity Marketing Group’s conduct violates the TCPA.

Given the extent of calls Plaintiff received across multiple Integrity downlines, TCPA noncompliance is a systemic problem that Integrity and its marketing partners have failed to properly address.

Plaintiff therefore brings this class action for injunctive relief and money damages against Integrity, on behalf of himself and others who similarly incurred TCPA robocall, IDNC, and NDNCR violations as a result of Integrity’s and its partners’ wrongful
practices.

Newman seeks to represent others who have been similarly harmed by Integrity Marketing Group through a proposed class-action.

As of May 29th, Newman’s case remains pending. On May 10th, Integrity Marketing Group filed for an extension of time to respond to Newman’s Complaint.

The court granted the motion on May 13th, giving Integrity Marketing Group till June 12th.

Family First Life is an insurance MLM company for whom selling leads to agents is a big part of their business.

Given seven civil TCPA fraud lawsuits have now been filed, this appears to be an ongoing problem with Family First Life and Integrity Marketing Group.

Three lawsuits have been settled with the outcome of four, including Newman’s, pending.

TCPA is regulated federally by the Federal Communication Commission (FCC). Whether the FCC has an open Integrity Marketing Group investigation is unclear.