Michigan mortgage lender sued over use of ‘artificial voice technology’ in class action suit

A mortgage company based in Michigan is facing a lawsuit in federal court for allegedly using artificially generated voice calls to contact individuals without their consent.

Brennan Landy, a resident of Delaware County, Pa., claims that Mortgage One Funding, headquartered in Clawson, Mich., is reaching out too broadly with repeated calls featuring an artificial or pre-recorded voice to people’s cellular phones across the country without their explicit written permission.

The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan on Feb. 24, seeks class action status due to the prevalence of these unwanted communications.

Landy asserts that Mortgage One Funding’s actions violate the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, a federal law that prohibits companies from telemarketing using pre-recorded or artificial voices without first obtaining consent from the recipients.

Furthermore, Landy mentions that he received these calls despite being on the National Do Not Call Registry since May 2023, a list created by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to allow people to opt-out of telemarketing calls.

A crucial point in Landy’s claim is that the artificial caller suggested he had requested the call, a statement Landy denies in his court documents, referring to it as a misleading sales tactic. The caller tried to pitch Landy on refinancing his mortgage.

Landy states, “To the extent third parties placed the calls, Defendant knowingly received the benefits of such calls and ratified the calls.” He reports that although he eventually connected with a live salesperson from Mortgage One Funding, he initially realized he was speaking to an artificial voice due to unnatural pauses and vocal inflections that wouldn’t occur in a conversation with a real person.

Efforts to reach Mortgage One Funding for comments via email were unsuccessful, as the messages bounced back as undeliverable. Multiple phone calls made to the company went unanswered or unreturned.

According to records from the Nationwide Mortgage Licensing System (NMLS), Mortgage One Funding started operations in 2021 and held active licenses in approximately 40 states by the end of the previous year. The company is involved in brokering and banking loans.

In Landy’s lawsuit, his legal team is proposing injunctions against future calls and $500 in damages for each violation if the case succeeds. The FCC has previously determined that companies can be held accountable for illegal telemarketing practices even if they have contracted out those services.