Fisher’s high profile in the news recently and the number of complaints against the company may lead the FTC to investigate, according to Mozelle Thompson, who served as an FTC commissioner between 1997 and 2004. “It seems they would be within the gun sights of the FTC,” he said.

Complaints about Fisher came from individuals in 35 states, with the most from Pennsylvania, Texas and California. Almost 90% involved phone calls. Prospects often considered them excessive, abusive or in violation of the rule forbidding contact with those who sign up for the Do Not Call Registry. The FTC said it redacted names and identifying information to protect citizens’ privacy.

Some griped about getting solicited at work, such as one aggrieved prospect from Durham, North Carolina in January 2017: “I am not interested and they keep calling. I know they need to reach their sales goals/quotas, but this is a work number. I do not want to be called.”

In one case, Fisher solicited a customer’s father who’d been dead for three years.

“I am not sure how they get their mailing lists, but it is appalling and upsetting that you would be sending mail to a deceased person,” the child of the dead parent wrote from Louisville, Kentucky in January.

Those who showed interest in offers for free investment advice found that it came with a steep cost: endless phone calls. “When you send for a ‘Free’ brochure advertised on the internet, the company follows-up the material relentlessly on a weekly and sometimes daily basis,” a prospect from Massachusetts wrote in March 2017.

Fisher would put pressure on unsophisticated consumers, according to a Washington State  resident, who wrote in May 2018: “In their sales pitches they routinely ask prospective clients, many of whom are elderly and vulnerable, to hand over hundreds of thousands, if not millions of dollars to their care. This type of sales technique is despicable.”

Dillard, the Fisher spokesman, disputed that allegation. “Dollar for dollar and client for client, we are proud to put our history of taking care of elderly clients up against anyone in the world,” he said. “To argue we aren’t world class in caring for elderly clients is blatantly false.”

Some comments to the FTC suggested mounting desperation. “I have emailed them as well and asked them to stop. It just seems to get worse,” one customer wrote. “It is way beyond harassment,” said another.

Seven of the complaints fell under the category: “Calls pretending to be government, businesses or family and friend.”