Telemarketing and Privacy
Telemarketing Calls, Text Message Spam, and Junk Faxes
Most consider telemarketing calls an annoyance at a minimum. However many telemarketing sales calls are frauds which result in billions of dollars a year in losses to consumers. From their “boiler rooms” operators try scams such as worthless prize offers, travel packages with hidden fees or costs, investments schemes, or fake charities. State and federal law, including the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (“TCPA”) limit unwanted telemarketing calls, junk faxes and spam text messages.
Our firm has used the TCPA to put a stop to unlawful telemarketers and obtained settlements and judgments for the recipients of their illegal advertisements.
The TCPA makes it illegal to make calls using an automatic telephone dialing system or an artificial or prerecorded voice to cell phones, residential telephone lines or phones where the recipient is charged.
The TCPA also prohibits sending text message spam or SMS spam to cell phones without the consent of the recipient. Spam text messages are particularly insidious, because if you have a limited allotment of text messages per month, YOU are paying to have a telemarketer send you their marketing message.
Unsolicited facsimile advertisements (“junk faxes”) do more than just annoy recipients. While a recipient’s fax machine is receiving junk faxes, it is unavailable to receive legitimate facsimiles. Junk faxes sent to physical fax machines waste paper, ink, and toner. Junk faxes sent to electronic fax numbers clutter inboxes and take up server space. All junk faxes cause the recipients to waste time discerning unsolicited facsimile advertisements from legitimate business communications. Junk faxes are often the primary tools of travel scams, penny stock schemes and health care frauds. The TCPA makes it illegal to transmit a unsolicited facsimile advertisement without the consent of the recipient or, with certain exceptions, an existing business relationship with the recipient.
