The Federal Trade Commission has charged two individuals with using a fake government affiliation to sell commercial trucking registration services.
The FTC said James Lamb and Uliana Bogash violated federal law by representing themselves as agents of the Department of Transportation and failing to adequately disclose fees charged to help fleet owners comply with annual filing requirements under the Unified Carrier Registration system.
“The defendants have taken in more than $19 million from thousands of small businesses by sending misleading robocalls, emails and text messages that create and reinforce the false impression that they are, or are affiliated with, the U.S. DOT, the UCR system or another government agency,” the FTC alleged in its complaint.
A federal judge granted a request by the FTC for a preliminary injunction against the two individuals and their companies, including DOTAuthority.com and DOTFilings.com, based in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
Lamb did not respond to a message from Transport Topics for comment, but a disclaimer on the company’s website currently states that DOTAuthority.com “is a private, third-party provider offering services for a fee” and “is NOT affiliated with any government authority.”
