Sunkey Publishing, Inc. and Fanmail.com, LLC
The FTC alleged that Sunkey Publishing and Fanmail.com used copycat military recruitment websites to collect consumer information and sell it as school marketing leads. Proposed orders required domain transfers and restricted future claims and data use.
Resolved. Refunded, settled, ceased operating, or the claim did not hold up. Kept for the record.
Identity
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- Registrations
- FTC v. Sunkey Publishing, Inc. and Fanmail.com, LLC (FTC case 162-3211, 2018)
- Locations
- Alabama
- Other handles
- army.com · navyenlist.com · armyenlist.com
- Jurisdictions
- United States (federal)
The FTC challenged copycat military recruitment sites
Sunkey Publishing, Inc. and Fanmail.com, LLC operated websites including army.com and navyenlist.com. The FTC alleged that the sites targeted people seeking to join the armed forces and falsely appeared affiliated with the U.S. military. Consumers submitted information after being told it would be used only for military recruitment and would not be shared.
According to the complaint, the defendants instead sold the information to post-secondary schools as marketing leads for $15 to $40 per lead. The FTC also alleged that follow-up callers posed as military members, promoted particular schools, and conveyed the false impression that the military endorsed those schools. The agency charged violations of the FTC Act and the Telemarketing Sales Rule, including hundreds of thousands of calls to numbers on the National Do Not Call Registry.
Two proposed orders required the defendants to transfer army.com, armyenlist.com, and other domain names to the FTC. The transfers partially satisfied civil penalty judgments of $11.1 million against Sunkey and $1 million against Fanmail. The remaining judgments were suspended because of inability to pay. Since the release gives no value for the transferred domains, no redress-ordered amount is recorded.
The orders also restricted claims of military affiliation and required disclosures and permission concerning consumer information. The release says the defendants had used copycat recruitment websites since at least 2010, but it does not state when the operation began, so activeSince is not recorded.
What is not established
The release reports FTC allegations and proposed consent orders. It does not report a finding after trial or state that the companies admitted the allegations.
Sources
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- Enforcement action September 6, 2018
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First recorded September 6, 2018 · Last updated September 6, 2018