NEWS 8 INVESTIGATES

A North Texas father-and-son team tonight are the target of federal officials and upset residents from around the country.

Mike and Greg Horne of Plano are perhaps the most notorious "blast faxers" in the nation, and—at least so far—no one has been able to stop them.

While it's certainly not a capital offense, sending out unsolicited faxes is typically against the law. The problem: that law is difficult to enforce because the blast faxers are often elusive.

The Hornes have been annoying people from around the country for years.

Dick Roebelt of St. Petersburg, Fla. is fed up.

After two years, he's tired of getting midnight phone calls and phantom faxes from people he doesn't know and with no way of requesting that the originator stop.

"When you call at two or three or four o'clock in the morning, we hear the rings, we hear the fax machine," Roebelt said. "It just wakes us up from a sound sleep."

Roebelt is not alone.

The fax attacks are coming from a North Texas company called My Hot Leads, which has been upsetting residents nationwide for years.

Steve Kirsch is a blast fax victim from Palo Alto, California. He got so upset at being victimized, he started the JunkFax.org Web site dedicated to exposing the offenders.

"They started in probably early 2000, so they've been breaking the law millions of times a day for the last seven years and nobody has really put a stop to them, except in a couple of different states," Kirsch said.

He discovered that My Hot Leads is just the latest incarnation of a blast fax business operated by Greg Horne and his father Mike out of an office in Addison.

Attorneys general in Texas and Minnesota have filed injuctions stopping the Hornes from blast faxing in those two states.

Last month, they were fined $2.1 million by the Federal Communications Commission for repeatedly breaking federal law in the other 48 states.

Our attempts to contact the Hornes in person, by phone and by e-mail have been unsuccessful.

But a visit to their office yielded some interesting clues that the Hornes may, in fact, still be in the blast faxing business.

"I think they are crooks. They need to be stopped," said a woman who identified herself as a former employee in the Hornes' office. She said she was kept in the dark about what the businesswas up to. She said she was fired after she asked too many questions.

Only later did she learn the truth.

"I realized how many people they were doing this to, and I realized they are going to keep doing it until they are stopped," said the woman, who did not wish to reveal her identity.

The Hornes did stop—at least the afternoon News 8 showed up at their office and caught them trying to slip away.

Q: "Are you going to talk to me, Greg? Can I ask what kind of business you guys are running?"

Greg Horne: "Lead generation business."

Q: "I believe it's probably an illegal business, don't you think?"

Horne: "There's some controversy."

Q: "The FCC is after you, right?"

Horne: "No, I don't believe so."

Q: "There's an injunction against you, right, in this state? And in Minnesota, right? So why are you continuing to do this business?"

Horne: "We don't do anything in Minnesota or Texas."

Q: "I know you don't, but you do around the country in 48 other states."

Horne: "Thanks, Brett. Is it illegal?"

Since the Hornes have ignored a federal order to stop, it's unlikely our encounter will slow them down.

Perhaps it's a good thing that is was us confronting them and not Dick Roebelt, the Florida man who is weary of the junk messages. He has a message for the Hornes:

"You deserve a fine, you deserve jail time," Roebelt said. "Personally, I think you should be hospitalized."

At last check, the Hornes were still in operation. But a new lawsuit filed against them in California could be the vehicle needed to get a nationwide injunction.

That's if the process server can find them.

E- mail bshipp@wfaa.com