UNITED STATES DISTRICT 

COURT NORTHERN DISTRICT 

OF ILLINOIS EASTERN 

DIVISION

Case No. 12-cv-5746 

 

PHILIP CHARVAT on behalf of himselfand

DECLARATION AND 

SUPPLEMENTAL REPORT OF 

MARGARET A. DALEY 

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 I, Margaret Daley, Esquire, declare and state under penalty of perjury as follows: 

1. I was retained by Carnival Corporation & PLC, Royal Caribbean Cruise Ltd. and 

NCL (Bahamas) Ltd. to review and analyze the report of Jeffrey Hansen (“Hansen”) who is the 

expert retained by the Plaintiff who provided certain telemarketing and data analysis opinions 

regarding the proposed class in this matter. I was present at his deposition, had my deposition 

taken, and have reviewed Hansen’s supplemental report. I now provide this declaration after 

having reviewed the Plaintiff’s Motion for Class Certification, in relation to the Cruise Lines Rule 

702 and Daubert Motion and to clarify a question that occurred during my deposition. For the sake 

of brevity, I adopt the qualifications set forth in detail in my report dated February 19, 2016 on 

pages 4-7. 

 2. The documents that I am relying on in connection to the Cruise Lines Rule 702 and 

Daubert motion are as follows: 

Written Report of Jeffrey Hansen 

Deposition of Jeffrey Hansen 

Lee v. Global Tel*Link Corp., 2:15cv2495 (C.D. Calif., filed April 3, 2015), 

Deposition of Jeffrey Hansen 

"Laptop Training School Closes With No Warning," 10 News.com 

California Secretary of State Business Entity Record for HomeyTel 

U.S.v. Braun, Defendant-Appellant, No. 94-3847, Decided: July 13, 1995 

Warrant Recommended, Re. Braun, No. 93-00133-01-CR-W-9-5 (W.D. Mo. filed 

Sept. 8, 1993), Sept. 18, 2000 

Re. Braun 93-cr-00133 Disposition, Braun v. Bloodworth, 4:02cv00789 (W.D. Mo. 

Filed Aug. 16, 2002), Complaint and Docket 

State v. Braun, 273 P.3d 801 (Kan. Ct. App. 2012) 

"Text of Conrad Braun’s phone calls to Kansans" 

“Californian behind calls against Morrison” 

Consumer complaints against HomeyTel 

Action News (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8xeWipGm64) 

Sapan v. Homeytel, Inc., Conrad Braun, et al., Case No. 30-2011-0087692 (San 

Diego Cnty. Sup. Ct., March 15, 2011), Declaration of Attorney Christopher J. 

Reichman in Support of Default Judgment 

http://www.salespider.com/b-359389576/thugz-network-solutions 

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http://homeownerscircle.com/company-359389576/thugz-network-solutions 

https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/0131-credit-card-interest-rate-reductionscams 

http://www.eastcountymagazine.org/ken-gosselin 

http://www.kpbs.org/news/2014/apr/03/san-diego-judicial-candidate-accusedpuffing-crede/ 

Henderson v. United Student Aid Funds, Inc., 3:13cv01845 (S.D. Calif., filed Aug. 

8, 2013), Declaration of Jeffrey Hansen, ECF 142-45 

Marks v Crunch San Diego, No. 14-cv-00348 (S.D. Cal. filed Feb. 14, 2014), 

Declaration of Justin A. Barton In Support Of Crunch San Diego, LLC’s Motion 

To Exclude Opinions And Testimony Of Jeffrey Hansen, ECF 37-2 

Elmasri and Navathe, Fundamentals of Database Systems, Addison-Wesley 

Computing 

https://certification.comptia.org/continuing-education/ 

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/learning/mcsa-certification.aspx 

http://www.bppe.ca.gov/about_us/history.shtml 

Russell, et al., v. DAT, Inc. dba Laptop Training Solutions, GIC804272 (San Diego 

Sup. Ct., filed Jan. 23, 2003) 

Laptop Training Solutions Bankruptcy Petition, U.S. Bankruptcy Court S. D. Calif. 

Case no. 04-08579-7 

http://web.archive.org/web/20030216221358/http://64.167.168.13/NEWLTS/web

/slmfaq.htm#18 

https://www.facebook.com/jeff.hansen.583234 

National Consumer Law Center Report (June 2005), 

https://www.rcfl.gov/about 

Affidavit of Mark Skertic 

Berkeley Research Group Job Postings 

 3. The documents that I am relying on to supplement my opinions relating to the 

recently filed motion for class certification are: 

Email from Leslie Sherman at LexisNexis.com, April 14, 2016 

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18th Mobile Wireless Competition Report, published by the Federal 

Communications Commission (https://www.fcc.gov/document/18th-mobilewireless-competition-report) 

Sherman v. Yahoo, 3:13cv00041 (S.D. Calif., filed Jan. 8, 2013), ECF No. 191 

AT&T First Quarter 2016 Earnings – Investor Briefing (accessed at 

https://www.att.com/Investor/Earnings/1q16/ib_final_1q16.pdf) 

AT&T Inc. 2013 Annual Report (accessed at 

https://www.att.com/Investor/ATT_Annual/2013/downloads/ar2013_annual_repo

rt.pdf) 

http://thehackernews.com/2016/03/prepaidp-burner-phone.html 

2012 North American Wireless Survey 

Email from Josh Eidell at Experian Data Quality, May 3, 2016 

Email from Holly Paulus at Nexxa Group, May 4, 2016 

LexisNexis End User Agreement 

Lexis Nexis reverse lookup result 

Lexis Nexis reverse lookup test results 

 4. The documents that I am relying on to clarify a question asked during my deposition 

are: 

Email exchange with Tim Ringenbach, April 26, 2016-April 27, 2016 

RMG Call Agent Shift Changes Do Not Account For The Edits Observed Within The 

Asteria Database’s Dialplan Tables 

5. In my deposition, I was asked whether RMG would have had to change aspects of 

their dialplans when changing which customer service agents were assigned to handle calls, such 

as shift changes in staffing.1

 At the time, I testified that I did not think that shift changes or other 

changes to the customer service staff would change the dialplans. I have subsequently conducted 

additional analysis of the database design and conferred again with Asteria database engineer Tim 

Ringenbach. Mr. Ringenbach confirmed that changes to the customer service staff had no effect

on these tables and cannot explain any of the observed changes to the Dialplan_State or 

Dialplan_State_Param tables. 

6. The Asteria database contains numerous tables that interact with one another to 

track certain information about the dialplans used in RMG’s calling campaigns. The various 

dialplan tables are “instructional” tables that record settings and parameters input by the user to 

instruct the system how to behave next, whereas other tables in the database are “log” tables that 

                                                            

1

 Deposition of Margaret Daley at 106:7-16. 

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the database backups, which represent snapshots of the state of the Asteria database on May 5, 

2012 and March 8, 2014. This indicates to me that, aside from the deletion of state 49, no other 

change has been made to these states between when the two database backups were made. 

11. Set forth below are the relevant rows from the Dialplan_State_Param table, from 

Database Backup 1 as taken on May 5, 2012: 

12. The same parameters appear differently in Database Backup 2, taken on March 8, 

2014: 

13. The important detail in these two outputs can be seen in the rows related to the 

parameters for state 47. This particular state is the “start” parameter for Dialplan 11, and which 

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is therefore directly related to the assignment of the pre-recorded IVR message to the dialplan. 

This parameter is different between the two backups. Not only has the sound assignment changed 

from Sound 28 to Sound 61, but the specific row numbers associated with this sound assignment 

has changed from Row 722 in Database Backup 1 to Row 1262 in Database Backup 2. Crucially, 

however, the other parameters associated with the other states of Dialplan 11 (states 48, 50, and 

51) not only stayed the same between the two Database backups, but their row numbers also stayed 

the same, serving as evidence that these states were not edited during that time. The only 

parameters for Dialplan 11 that were changed in those two years were the parameters associated 

with state 47, which includes the assignment of the pre-recorded IVR message. 

14. This indicates that any changes to the customer services agents assigned to handle 

calls (such as a shift change) could not and do not account for the edits found in this table. Any 

such changes to staffing, if it was documented in the database at all, would have appeared in 

different tables. In terms of how the database is designed, the Queue_Log and Queue_Devices 

tables would be the location of any such information. I examined these tables and found that the 

Queue_Devices table is unused and empty of data in both Database Backups. I also found that 

the Queue_Log table does not contain the data identifying individual agents and their activity. An 

excerpt from that table is below as an illustration of how some of the columns are empty or filled 

with only default, non-descriptive data such as “NONE”: 

15. I communicated these observations to Mr. Ringenbach, who confirmed that due to 

the specific configuration of RMG’s version of the Asteria database, it did not collect any data

about shift changes or individual agents, and so there is in fact nothing in the database backups 

relating to shift changes. 

16. Mr. Ringenbach said, “I'm not surprised that there's not any queue information. 

Many custom[er]s [sic] forward the calls to an external system. Even if they're using our system 

for the queues, we would have recommended that they have a separate server for the queues (for 

performance reasons), which would have its own database.”3

17. During my conversation with Mr. Ringenbach I also verified that the act of 

changing a sound recording assigned to a Dialplan does not require the user to pause the calling 

                                                            

3

 See Exhibit 1. 

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campaign. Mr. Ringenbach confirmed the system is designed to be flexible and allow users to 

make these kinds of changes quickly should they choose to do so. 

Plaintiff’s expert Jeffrey Hansen has overstated and misrepresented his professional 

experience and technical credentials 

18. As discussed above, I was present at Mr. Hansen’s deposition in this case and I 

have also been an opposing expert in two other cases with him.4 I personally undertook a 

comprehensive background investigation into the professional experience and credentials Mr. 

Hansen claims in his expert reports and on his curriculum vitae. Based upon the facts unearthed 

in my investigation, it is my opinion as a professional investigator and Certified Fraud Examiner 

that Mr. Hansen has exaggerated his credentials and presents misleading statements regarding his 

professional qualifications. 

19. In both his expert reports and curriculum vitae, Mr. Hansen claims a set of 

credentials, qualifications, and experience that purportedly establish his ability to offer expert 

opinions in matters relating to data analysis, automatic dialer systems and in TCPA matters in 

general. Specifically, he claims to: 

1) “frequently” “act as a consultant to companies that engage in the use of 

autodialers” and that he has set up and maintained “all aspects of predictive dialers 

and autodialers;”5

 (Emphasis added) 

2) have taught “1000 students” to be computer engineers;6 

3) be a seasoned expert witness who has served in “more than 50” TCPA class action 

lawsuits;7 

4) have “worked” at the FBI Regional Computer Forensic Laboratory;8 and 

5) hold multiple technical certifications, including the MSCE.9

20. As detailed below, these claims appear to be exaggerated and misleading. 

Furthermore, what experience he does have was gained through associations with convicted felons 

and fraudsters and companies that have apparently exploited the very consumers plaintiff purports 

to represent. 

                                                            

4

 Due to confidentiality designations in those cases, I have been careful to only rely on materials provided to me in 

this case that were obtained by the Cruise Lines’ counsel. Please see list in paragraph 2 supra. 5

 Written Report of Jeffrey Hansen, p. 3. 

6 Id., p. 4. 7 Id., p. 2. 8 Id., p. 4. 9 Id., p. 4. 10 Exhibit 2, at 89:4-94:18. 

11 Deposition of Jeffrey Hansen at 89:11-90:1. 

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33. A TV news story about the Paul Morrison robocalls featured video footage of 

HomeyTel’s call center, which, as described and shown in the footage, consists of a “small office 

jammed with exposed telephone wires, high power modems, and a bank of computers using 60 

telephone lines.”46 Images of the “call center” from the TV news report are below: 

34. When Mr. Hansen claims in his expert report that he has “set up and maintained all 

aspects of predictive dialers and autodialers from predictive dialers operating with just three 

telephone lines to outbound call centers capable of generating over 1 million calls per hour,”47 he 

is referring to the HomeyTel “call center” which is depicted above. My research uncovered no 

other locations for HomeyTel’s business. 

35. Another HomeyTel calling campaign known to involve Mr. Hansen involved a 

series of robocalls made to consumers without their consent that was conducted in 2010. This 

calling campaign resulted in lawsuits alleging that the calls were part of a fraudulent scheme to 

peddle debt relief, insurance, and other financial products to consumers. Pleadings in that lawsuit, 

                                                            

46 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8xeWipGm64, Attached as Exhibit 13. 

47 Written Report of Jeffrey Hansen, p. 3. 

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39. Although Mr. Hansen testified that this campaign took place in 2012, in fact Ken 

Gosselin’s failed bid to be elected judge in San Diego took place in 2014. Mr. Gosselin’s 

campaign was marked by accusations of fraudulent misrepresentation. The Gosselin campaign 

posted billboards that read “for Judge Gosselin Law Enforcement’s Choice,” however the “for” 

was printed in such tiny letters as to be essentially invisible. This gave the impression to motorists 

that Gosselin was already a sitting judge running for re-election. As reported in the San Diego 

media, the law forbids judicial candidates from calling themselves judges. 59 

The Gosselin campaign allegedly made similarly misleading claims in other media that 

embellished his credentials. KPBS.org reported that the Gosselin campaign website stated he was 

Harvard Law School trained, when in fact he earned his law degree from La Verne University. 

After the opposing candidate Brad Weinreb filed court papers to seek a court order barring the 

false ballot statements, the Gosselin campaign updated the website to read that he was a “Harvard 

Law School-trained mediator” because he received a certificate from a mediation workshop held 

at Harvard in 1999. Mr. Gosselin also claimed in his candidate statement that as a judge pro tem

he has presided over thousands of criminal and civil cases assigned by the Superior Court, when 

his opponents claimed court papers showed his actual judicial experience was limited to smallclaims and traffic cases. Mr. Gosselin also allegedly claimed in his ballot designation worksheet 

that he is a constitutional law attorney, when his own website noted his practice focused on real 

estate cases.60 The text of the pre-recorded message played in the robocalls made by Mr. Hansen 

on Mr. Gosselin’s behalf has not been identified in publicly accessible materials, so it is unclear 

whether the robocalls made by Mr. Hansen repeated any of the misleading campaign claims. 

40. In his deposition, Mr. Hansen was unable to identify any other instances of using 

his personal dialer for robocalling other than his work for Ken Gosselin’s campaign: 

Q. Before [the Gosselin campaign], when was the last one you ran before that? 

A. I don't recall before that. 

Q. So you ran five campaigns. The last one was in 2012. When was the first one? 

A. I am not sure. I think there was one other one, but I can't place which one it 

was. 

Q. How many year time span do you think you did these five campaigns? 

A. It would have gone through the political seasons. So every two years there is 

a political season. 

                                                            

59 http://www.eastcountymagazine.org/ken-gosselin 

60 http://www kpbs.org/news/2014/apr/03/san-diego-judicial-candidate-accused-puffing-crede/ 

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Q. But did you do four in the last political season and then one in 2012 -- 

A. No. 

Q. -- or did you do two, two, two? 

A. It might have been a total of two. The one that stands out in my mind is Ken 

Gosselin. 

Q. And so you think it might have been a total of two political seasons? 

A. It might have been two. It might have been -- you know, I can only recall the 

one at the moment. (Emphasis added)61

Mr. Hansen also testified that his work for Conrad Braun and Ken Gosselin comprise the entirety

of his telemarketing experience: 

Q. But again, the depth of your experience in this industry, is limited to what you 

have done with HomeyTel as well as the few campaigns you did on your own? 

A. Yes.62

Mr. Hansen’s Experience as an “Expert” Witness in “More Than 150 TCPA Class 

Action Lawsuits” 

41. In his reports, Mr. Hansen claims that he has “served as an expert or consultant in 

more than 50 TCPA class action lawsuits.”63 This supplemental report was signed by Mr. Hansen 

on February 10, 2016. Just a few months later, when Mr. Hansen filed his declaration on May 4, 

2016 in the matter of Henderson v. United Student Aid Funds, Inc., 3:13cv01845 (S.D. Calif., 

filed Aug. 8, 2013), he now claims to have “served as an expert or consultant in more than 150 

TCPA class action lawsuits.”64 In his deposition in another TCPA matter, Mr. Hansen testified 

regarding this extraordinarily prolific output as a plaintiff’s TCPA expert: 

A: 

Q: 

A: 

42. 

66 According to his deposition testimony in 

                                                            

61 Deposition of Jeffrey Hansen at 398:1-23. 

62 Id. at 412:13-17. 63 Written Report of Jeffrey Hansen, p. 2. 

64 Henderson v. United Student Aid Funds, Inc., 3:13cv01845 (S.D. Calif., filed Aug. 8, 2013), Declaration of 

Jeffrey Hansen, ECF 142-45, p. 2. 

65 Exhibit 2 at 168:4-20. 

66 Id. at 96:7-9. 

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the instant matter, Mr. Hansen works a full 40-hour workweek with HP Enterprise Solutions 

connecting fiber optic cable for naval ships.67

43. Forensic analysis is a complex undertaking. This is particularly true in TCPA 

matters which typically involve the analysis of complex data warehouse systems which use 

relational databases that store tens of millions of individual call records. Understanding the 

system’s design, unique configuration, operational history and audit history is critical to accurately 

assessing the nature of the system itself and thus the validity of the data contained within it. 

Reliable analytical results come from careful attention to detail. 

44. Mr. Hansen’s testimony in Marks v. Crunch San Diego, No. 14-cv-00348 (S.D. 

Cal. filed Feb. 14, 2014) suggests that he may be inflating the number of TCPA cases where he 

has actually served as an expert. Defendant Crunch challenged Hansen’s credentials as an expert 

witness, and in the resulting court filings Hansen admitted that he had not actually provided an 

expert report in at least 24 of the 50 “TCPA Class Actions” listed on the Crunch CV. Furthermore, 

Mr. Hansen claimed in his deposition in that case that he had worked on multiple text messages 

cases. After Mr. Hansen refused to produce copies of his expert reports he was ordered to do so 

by the court. It was later disclosed after this production that contrary to his testimony, he had in 

fact never provided a report or declaration in a text messaging case.70

45. If Mr. Hansen has indeed worked on 100 TCPA cases in the last two years this 

would constitute an extraordinary level of expert witness work, particularly for a solo practitioner 

with a completely unrelated full time job. If the number of cases presented on his expert report are 

presumed to be true there are red flags that Mr. Hansen may be running an expert report “mill.” 

These red flags are: 

1) The extraordinarily high volume of cases and expert reports produced by Mr. 

Hansen in his off hours; 

2) The suspiciously high number of hours he claims to be working each week on a 

regular basis; 

3) The exaggerated credentials he claims on his expert reports and curriculum vitae

(see below); and 

4) His publicly articulated bias against defendants in TCPA Matters.71

                                                            

67 Deposition of Jeffrey Hansen at 81:23-84:16. 

68 Id. at 88:25-89:9. 69 Exhibit 2 at 97:3-14. 

70 The case was dismissed after the judge granted the defendant’s motion for summary judgment leaving moot the 

defendant’s motion to exclude Hansen’s testimony. Exhibit 14, p. 2-3 paragraphs 5-6. 

71 For example, Mr. Hansen uses his public Facebook page to advertise his expert witness work. It contains posts 

from July 14 and July 21, 2016 in which he writes “I don’t always drink beer, but when I do, it’s after dealing with 

defense attorneys.” 

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Mr. Hansen’s Experience and Qualifications as a Data Analyst 

Mr. Hansen’s Technical Certifications 

46. All of Mr. Hansen’s technical certifications listed in his CV were obtained between 

2002 and 2006. These certifications are variously expired, retired, irrelevant, and/or non-existent. 

With few exceptions, they largely represent entry-level credentials for experience with nowobsolete technologies. For example. Mr. Hansen obtained the Microsoft Certified Solutions 

Administrator (“MCSA”) and Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer (“MCSE”) certificates in 

2002. Microsoft offers the MCSA and MCSE certificates in a variety of software domains 

including SQL Server.72 However, Mr. Hansen did not obtain either certificate in the SQL 

domains, but rather in the Windows Server 2003 and Windows 2000 Server operating systems. 73 

These are extremely dated, and have been discontinued in most corporate environments as they 

are no longer supported by Microsoft. A summary of Mr. Hansen’s certifications is set forth in 

Exhibit 15. 

47. To the extent any of these certifications are still technically valid, despite his failure 

to conduct any of the continuing education expected by the credentialing organizations, it is 

because he obtained them so long ago that the requirements for continuing education were not yet 

in place.74 Mr. Hansen’s curriculum vitae makes it clear he has not taken a single formal 

continuing education course since 2006, ten years ago. Continuing education is particularly 

important in technology-related professions as software programs and computer hardware change 

                                                            

 72 Structured Query Language, or “SQL,” is the industry-stanadrd programming language used to communicate with 

relational databases. The language is a comprehensive standard covering data definitions, queries, and updates, 

specifying security and authorization, defining integrity constraints, and specifying transaction controls. See Elmasri 

and Navathe, Fundamentals of Database Systems, Addison-Wesley Computing, Chapter 8. 73 See Exhibit 15, also https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/learning/mcsa-certification.aspx 74 https://certification.comptia.org/continuing-education/comptia-continuing-education-programfaq#certrenewalprocess1; also see: https://certification.comptia.org/continuing-education/how-to-renew/ce-renewalcycle, and https://www microsoft.com/en-us/learning/retired-certifications.aspx. 

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rapidly, making prior expertise quickly out of date. To give concrete examples, the last time Mr. 

Hansen took any professional education or training, Twitter had just launched, the first smartphone 

(the iPhone) was a year away from being introduced and Facebook was still limited to students. 

48. Mr. Hansen also claims to be a “Certified Instructor in California and Oregon by 

Bureau for Private Postsecondary and Vocational Education.” This is misleading as there is no 

one state agency that certifies teachers in private schools in both California and Oregon. This 

statement appears to be a reference to a now defunct California governmental institution that 

regulated private postsecondary educational institutions that provided educational services in 

California. My investigation indicates that this body did not certify individual teachers and it 

ceased to function in 2007.75 Further, Mr. Hansen is not qualified to be a public school teacher as 

he has no college degree. If he did obtain some kind of trade school teaching certification while 

at LTS it is likely expired since he left that position 12 years ago when the school went bankrupt 

and ceased operating. 

Mr. Hansen’s Experience Teaching “1000 Students” to be Computer Engineers 

49. Mr. Hansen was employed from 2000 to 2004 by Laptop Training Solutions 

(“LTS”) as “Director of Training.” LTS’ license to operate was revoked by the California Bureau 

for Private Postsecondary and Vocational Education a year later for, among other things, failing 

to adequately train students. A consumer class action fraud case was filed against LTS in 2003.77 

In September 2004, LTS closed, and filed for Chapter 7 Bankruptcy on October 1, 2004. The 

company’s filing lists over $5.2 million in liabilities. Many of these creditors appear to be the 

school’s students.78 

50. One of the complaints alleged against LTS was that it provided “uncertified 

instructors.”79 None of Mr. Hansen’s certifications were conferred prior to 2002, meaning that he 

taught classes at LTS for two years without holding any certifications.80 

51. 

                                                            

75 http://www.bppe.ca.gov/about_us/history.shtml 

76 Exhibit 2 at 52:15-53:2. 

77 Exhibit 16. 

78 See Exhibit 17. 79 Exhibit 3. 

80 See Exhibit 15. 81 Exhibit 2 at 87:6-11. 

82 Id. at 83:7-11. 

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has set forth no methodology by which to identify those names and addresses. In fact, no reliable 

methodology exists. 

Cellular Telephone Reverse Lookup Processes are Unreliable 

63. According to Mr. Hansen’s analysis, the proposed class consists of 388,966 unique 

phone numbers, of which 286,184 (73%) are cellular telephone numbers.101 

64. I have been in the private investigations business since 1997 and have conducted 

thousands of background checks in the last 18 years. I am very familiar with the data provided by 

data processors and am experienced in the use of cellular telephone reverse lookup services. I can 

state with a reasonable degree of certainty from my professional experience that cellular telephone 

reverse lookup services are not considered highly reliable in the investigations industry because 

they are not obtained from reliable public sources of information. In my experience these lookup 

services typically have a 50/50 chance of accurately identifying the current subscriber of a cellular 

telephone number. These database services are significantly less reliable in identifying historical

owners. 

65. Identifying the ownership of a cellular telephone number is by its very nature 

difficult. Unlike landlines, no national directory of cellular telephone owners is published by any 

organization and cellular providers do not make the information readily available. Data brokers 

that provide reverse lookup services compile the information from a diverse and proprietary set of 

data sources such as lead lists from lead generation websites, the accuracy of which varies widely. 

LexisNexis does not even identify its sources of cellular telephone ownership data, by which to 

evaluate its reliability.102

66. In contrast, other data provided by brokers like LexisNexis, such as real estate 

ownership and business records, are sourced from reliable public records, including recorded 

deeds and secretary of state records. The accuracy of that data is not, however, at issue here, and 

the reputation of LexisNexis and other data brokers in adequately aggregating this type of data 

should not be applied to their cellular telephone number lookup services, which are drawn from 

an entirely different and less reliable type of data. These reverse lookup services do not enjoy a 

reputation for accuracy in the investigations industry. In fact, these reports are viewed with 

significant skepticism by professional investigators. The identifications provided by them are 

considered a potential lead to but not the definitive answer to the identity of a telephone owner. 

 

67. According to a 2015 FCC report, there is an average monthly “churn” rate of 1.44-

1.85%.103 This means, on average, a cellular telephone number will change hands within 6-7 

years. It is therefore likely that a substantial number of the phone numbers at issue in this case 

changed hands during the time period covered by the class definition. Data brokers’ historical 

records are unreliable at best and often non-existent as to if and when a number changes hands.104

                                                            

101 Mr. Hansen Revised Report, p. 12. 102 Exhibit 21. 103 See the 18th Mobile Wireless Competition Report, published by the Federal Communications Commission, 

accessed at https://www fcc.gov/document/18th-mobile-wireless-competition-report. 104 In the case of Sherman v. Yahoo, the court denied class certification in a matter involving a proposal to use a 

cellular telephone reverse number lookup process to identify class claimants. In the order denying class 

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68. AT&T, one of the largest wireless carriers with a current subscriber base of over 

130 million,105 reported in 2013 that “[a]bout 90% of our postpaid smartphone subscribers are on 

FamilyTalk® plans (family plans), Mobile Share plans or business plans,”106 whereby the actual 

end users of a phone number are different from the subscriber. According to AT&T, another 7% 

of their wireless subscribers are on a prepaid plan,107 for which the wireless carrier often maintains 

little or no documentation of the user’s identity.108 All told, the vast majority of the subscriber 

base, for one of the leading wireless carriers, consist of accounts for which the provider may not 

have any reliable record of the user’s identity at all. While comprehensive information about the 

cellular telephone market is not readily available, a 2012 study by PriceWaterhouseCooper 

regarding the cellular market timeframe at issue in this case, reported that family plans account 

for 40% of the overall cellular market and that prepaid plans account for another approximately 

30%.109 

69. Many data brokers do not even offer historical cellular phone number ownership 

records. For example, Experian, a leading international data broker, recently reported to BRG that 

Experian does not maintain or sell historical data on cellular telephone numbers ownership: 

We don’t have any historical ownership data on the phones so we would not be 

able to accommodate [this] request for historical assignments. (Emphasis added)110

In addition, Nexxa, another prominent database vendor, also denies that it can provide 

historical cellular telephone ownership identification. When contacted, a Nexxa representative 

responded that “we currently do not have access to the historical cell phone owner data. That 

data resides directly with the carriers.” (Emphasis added).111

70. Data brokers who sell cellular telephone data warn their customers that the 

information is not reliable. LexisNexis for example provides the following disclaimer with respect 

to telephone lookup services: 

Important: The Public Records and commercially available data sources used on 

reports have errors. Data is sometimes entered poorly, processed incorrectly and is 

                                                            

certification, Judge Gonzalo Curiel agreed with defendant Yahoo!’s argument that “reverse lookup systems are 

fraught with difficulties and are unlikely to provide accurate contact information two years later.” Sherman v. 

Yahoo, 3:13cv00041 (S.D. Calif., filed Jan. 8, 2013), ECF No. 191. 

105 Q1 2016 AT&T Earnings – Investor Briefing, p. 13 accessed at 

https://www.att.com/Investor/Earnings/1q16/ib_final_1q16.pdf. 106 AT&T Inc. 2013 Annual Report, p. 17, accessed at 

https://www.att.com/Investor/ATT_Annual/2013/downloads/ar2013_annual_report.pdf. 107Id. 108 The anonymous nature of prepaid plans have been questioned by legislators concerned about their use by 

terrorists and other criminals. California is currently considering a proposed bill, dubbed the "Closing the Pre-Paid 

Mobile Device Security Gap Act of 2016," or HR 4886, which will require retailers to ask prepaid device buyers for 

their proper identification. See http://thehackernews.com/2016/03/prepaidp-burner-phone html. 

109 Exhibit 22, p. 55 and 65 (percentage of family plans calculated as 58% of the postpaid market, identified itself as 

being 70% of the market). 

110 Exhibit 23. 111 Exhibit 24. 

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generally not free from defect. This system should not be relied upon as definitively 

accurate. Before relying on any data this system supplies, it should be 

independently verified.112

71. I know from personal experience on prior casework that LexisNexis does not expect 

any better than a 60-70% “hit rate” of finding any name and address to associate with a given 

cellular telephone number. 

72. The unreliable nature of LexisNexis’ cellular telephone reverse lookup service is 

demonstrated by other misidentifications. For example, LexisNexis Cellular Phone Number Plus 

lookup service identifies only the name “William Wartson” for a cellular telephone number that I 

used as a professional wireless contact number during the time frame at issue in this dispute. The 

number was owned by my prior employer Duff & Phelps and my use of the number ended in April 

2015.113 The failure of LexisNexis to correctly identify this number with my name is indicative 

of the fundamental problem with using these unreliable cellular number lookup services to identify 

historical users of any given phone number. 

 

73. I recently conducted my own reliability testing of LexisNexis’ reverse lookup 

service, using a list of 167 cellular telephone numbers for which I already knew the correct current 

user’s name. These numbers encompassed a range of phone service types including individually 

owned single user plans, family plans, and employer-owned plans.114 Only 68 of these test 

numbers returned the correct name of the user, representing an accuracy rate of only 41%.115 This 

result is consistent, although somewhat lower, than my professional experience which indicates 

that these reverse lookup services have a 50/50 accuracy rate in identifying current owners. 

Sources of Opt-In Consent 

74. In my report dated February 19, 2016, I presented my analysis of the unique 

websites attributed as the sources of opt-in consent for the proposed class claimants, as found on 

the lead lists produced by RMG. I conducted additional analysis to identify how often Orbitz, 

Priceline, Travelocity and/or Expedia are attributed as a source of opt-in consent within the lead 

lists. Orbitz, Priceline, Travelocity and/or Expedia are attributed as a source of opt-in consent for 

at least 5,748 unique phone numbers from the proposed class.116

                                                            

112 Exhibit 25. In addition, LexisNexis’ license agreement further warns the user regarding the accuracy of the data: 

“Section 3 - Not Legal Advice: Content is not intended to and does not constitute legal advice 

and no attorney-client relationship is formed, nor is anything submitted to this Web Site treated as 

confidential. The accuracy, completeness, adequacy or currency of the Content is not warranted or 

guaranteed. Your use of Content on this Web Site or materials linked from this Web Site is at your 

own risk.” 113 Exhibit 26. 114 I do not know if any pre-paid plans were included in the data set, but I did not take any steps to exclude them. 115 Exhibit 27. 116 As I explained in my report dated February 19, 2016, the inconsistent formatting and structure of the various lead 

lists prohibits comprehensive automatic searching of their contents. I identified websites within the lead lists by use 

of the same pattern-matching search used in my prior analysis, but this method is incomplete. A manual search 

across the millions of rows of data in the 8,247 lead lists would be required to comprehensively identify all instances 

of these websites. 

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