Telemarketing Laws Have Difficulty Curbing the Tide of Robocalls

Robocalls have become a common nuisance of daily life for countless Americans. Billions of robocalls are placed in the U.S. each month. Some of us can tell it’s no longer the weekend when we start getting phone calls at 8 a.m. Monday morning. Others have stopped answering the phone when the number isn’t recognized, letting it go to voicemail instead.

Telemarketing laws are enforced by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), which receive hundreds of thousands of robocall complaints every month. These agencies can’t and don’t respond to every complaint about violations of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA), but these complaints form important data trends that help the government figure out how to fight the rising tide of robocalls, both in terms of technological advancements and litigation.

While the total number of spam calls have dropped by a whopping 30 percent since the start of the coronavirus pandemic in the U.S., many Americans continue to be inundated with these calls. Moreover, a number of robocalls and spam texts are being targeted at consumers’ current fears amidst the pandemic: get-rich-quick schemes, pharmacy scams, and fake warnings about COVID-19 exposure.

The FTC has received reports of telemarketing scammers preying on consumers’ coronavirus fears, falsely offering COVID-19 test kits, cash grants, or Medicare benefits to get people to give them their personal information.

Telemarketing Laws

Telemarketing laws provide guidance for companies regarding how they are and are not allowed to contact consumers, such as through the FTC’s National Do Not Call Registry. However, these telemarketing laws have so far not been particularly effective at actually stopping robocalls. Indeed, while many upstanding companies comply with the National Do Not Call Registry, many companies ignore it and continue to contact consumers via robocalls and spam texts. According to YouMail’s May 2020 robocall index, 37 percent of robocalls came from scammers.

Even for those who have not registered their phone numbers with the National Do Not Call Registry, FTC laws still prohibit telemarketing calls with pre-recorded messages to consumers who have not given prior express written consent to receive these calls or did not have a previously established business relationship with the company.

Telemarketing laws also require telemarketers to provide an origination number on the receiver’s caller ID and to connect the robocall to a sales representative within two seconds of the recorded greeting.

Under the current telemarketing laws, certain robocalls are legal. These include:

• Alerts and reminders
• Payment reminders
• Debt collection notices
• Purely informational calls
• Others

Because there are so many reported violations, with so little ability to trace them — scammers can show false caller ID information and make it seem like they’re calling from anywhere in the world — consistent regulation of robocalls has been virtually impossible.

The Vermont House Committee on Ways and Means believes it may have a solution to more effectively regulate illegitimate robocalls. A bill known as H. 931 would impose a $1 tax on every illegitimate robocall under the Telemarketing and Consumer Fraud and Abuse Prevention Act, to be paid by communications providers. However, actually enforcing this bill or any other that truly cracks down on illegal robocalls may be quite difficult, since many of these calls originate overseas. Moreover, many robocalls are legal, and it can be difficult to tell which is which.

Consumers across the country are increasingly turning to litigation to deal with spam texting and robocalls. If you have been flooded with coronavirus robocalls or spam texts, you may be able to file a TCPA lawsuit and pursue compensation.

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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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This article is not legal advice. It is presented
for informational purposes only.