Scamming 'Your Warranty Will Expire' Calls Lead to Lawsuits

"They're using deceptive sales tactics. The calls say your warranty is about to expire and people believe it's the manufacturer calling them. The companies use names like Dealer Services or Dealer Warranty Division to mislead people. The policies sometimes have so many caveats the consumers later find the contract did not really cover anything," Southwick said.

Several states have filed lawsuits against companies which annoy customers with robocalls, some authorities say is a scam.

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"There is both a deceptive nature of the solicitation and a false bill of goods," she said.

The calls are not just limited to home numbers, which many Americans have registered on Do Not Call lists, but to work extensions and cell phones too.

Katie Murphy, 25, says she regularly receives recorded calls alerting her that the "factory warranty on her vehicle is about to expire," even though she does not own a car.

The calls, she says, come both to her workplace, the New York City offices of the Ubuntu Education Fund, a South Africa-based charity, and to her mobile phone, which is registered in Connecticut.

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"I've received two or three in the past two weeks. The office gets at least one weekly," she said.

"It's really annoying. It's just frustrating. I usually hang up," she said.

Investigators say determining who is behind the calls is difficult. Some companies use false names and mask their phone numbers so recipients can't call back.

The Indiana case, like a similar ongoing case brought against another company by the Missouri attorney general, are both civil cases.

Many of the companies behind the calls are believed to be based in Missouri.

No criminal fraud charges have been brought against any of these companies, according to the Federal Trade Commission.

"Indiana has fairly robust telephone privacy laws," said Molly Butters, spokeswoman for the Indiana attorney general. "Under the state's auto-dialer laws, recipients must opt in and consent to receiving prerecorded messages. We believe these companies also violated the law by calling people on the Do Not Call list."

The Indiana case prosecutes two companies, SVM Inc. based in California, Fortress Secured Inc., based in Nevada, and an individual named Mike Moneymaker, who according to the lawsuit lives in California.