New TCPA Lawsuit Filed Over Bank of America Robocalls

A California woman recently filed a TCPA lawsuit, alleging she received harassing Bank of America robocalls in an attempt to collect a debt.

According to the lawsuit, the plaintiff, Irene W., opened a credit card account with Bank of America in May 2016. Unfortunately, a little over a year later, Irene went into default on that account due to financial hardship. At this point, she began receiving Bank of America robocalls trying to collect the debt.

On Aug. 14, 2017, Irene says, she and her lawyers sent Bank of America a cease and desist letter requesting that these Bank of America robocalls stop.

Despite the letter that clearly revoked any prior express consent for contact, these Bank of America robocalls continued repeatedly, Irene claims. On many occasions, Irene reports receiving from one to five Bank of America robocalls per day, in violation of TCPA regulations.

Irene says that on Nov. 17, 2017, another cease and desist letter was sent over the Bank of America robocalls, and a third one in February 2018 after the Bank of America robocalls continued on a near-daily basis.

On top of these three cease and desist letters over the course of several months, Irene says she also verbally requested that the Bank of America robocalls stop in many of these calls. The calls were extremely frequent—the lawsuit notes that Irene received more than 200 Bank of America robocalls between Aug. 14, 2017 and Feb. 21, 2018.

Irene filed her lawsuit over Bank of America robocalls on Feb. 21 in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California. The lawsuit was filed on multiple counts, including negligent and willful violations of the TCPA.

Basics of the TCPA

The Telephone Consumer Protection Act, or TCPA, was first enacted in 1991. The TCPA was intended to protect consumers from unwanted solicitation through technology.

The TCPA has always focused on the placement of unwanted robocalls, or the use of an auto dialer or pre-recorded messaging system to contact consumers who have not given their explicit permission to receive such calls. Of course, as new technology such as cell phones has emerged over the years, the TCPA has further expanded to include text messaging as well.

Reporting TCPA violations or filing a lawsuit over unwanted robocalls can help keep companies in check, and may also reward consumers with a set amount of award money per individual violation.

According to the Federal Communications Commission, or FCC, reports of TCPA violations are extremely common. In fact, the FCC received more than 215,000 individual TCPA complaints in 2014 alone.

If you have been on the receiving end of unwanted or harassing robocalls from Bank of America or another company without having first given your permission, you may be able to report these TCPA violations and receive compensation per violation.Keep messages and phone records of the robocalls placed to your phone. In order for your TCPA claims to be most effective, you will need proof of these violations.

The Bank of America Robocalls Lawsuit is Case No. 3:18-cv-00394-W-AGS, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California.

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If you were contacted on your cell phone by a company via an unsolicited text message (text spam) or prerecorded voice message (robocall), you may be eligible for compensation under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act.

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