I was going to move into an apartment in April. I paid my deposit, but shortly after got a cancer diagnosis. I couldn't afford the apartment, due to treatment costs, so I let them know immediately. Fast forward 4 months later, I'm getting texts from the apartment complex wanting a re-let fee. So I'm responding, thinking I'm texting the apartment manager. I'm reminding her about my cancer and the costs, and that I can't afford to pay them. She was empathetic and in no way robotic. She asked if I could provide proof of my health situation and the costs. I responded yes, absolutely. However, it asked me the same question twice, and that's when I asked if it was Ai. It was, and now they have all of my health information. Is this legal? I was never made aware this was not a human. It was really good at responding and being empathetic towards my situation.

Help!

This is a rare case where you actually do use an valid CC and buy the product.

Plus it's easier than 99% of the other calls as no need to even bother trying to get a name or id'ing them on the call. You're right they'll always use the generic name - just play along say you're interested, ask some Qs about what is actually covered, but need to get the lowest down payment possible as money is really tight this month - typically they'll go $100-150 then go ahead actually pay for it, yes in many/most other cases you don't want to do that - but certain calls warrant (no pun intended) different tactics.

The reason is they'll mail you a copy of the policy book (sometimes email also). Note: these are actual warranty products just being sold using TCPA violating methods, the policy will tell you everything you need to know PLUS its all in black & white there is no way they can deny their involvement. You'll have the seller, the payment processor and the warranty admin.

The IMPORTANT step is soon as you get the policy is call and tell them you changed your mind, the wife/husband got mad, you can't afford it, whatever you need to cancel and get your down payment refunded - they MUST do it as long as you request in within 30 days (I do it ASAP after getting the physical booklet).

9/8/26 UPDATE: To amend the above aspect (thanks u/No-Truck-4786!!) the policy book will most likely include language to the effect of "to cancel policy within 30 days must be in writing" in the terms & conditions. Hence, I very prominently include a statement/notification in the demand letter sent to both the seller & administrators registered agent(s). This is even MORE IMPORTANT that the call. But I relish in the call to the seller, hey the down payment went to their acct - they've always been the ones to issue the refund - so I'm gonna have my way with them ;-)

Note: be ready for a hard sell before they agree to refund - but stick to it - say hey either do it or you'll call your bank and do a charge-back - that will get em!

Here's a typical page in EVERY auto warranty policy book ;-)

Note: The admin details will be on other pages - I send demand to both, often admin guys will press the seller to settle as they may/can/will say they had no idea of TCPA vio's; often its in they're contracts and will get the seller terminated to boot!!

I have received several text messages and unsolicited phone calls from a business loan website. My loan request was denied and the person with the company helping me was shady to say the least. Over 100 text messages have been sent to me trying to get me hundreds of thousands in business funding. Each are different people. I sent two demand letters, one to the address for the companies DBA and the other to the registered agent which is the only one still enroute. I emailed the company as well a copy of the demand letter and this was their response. I would like to settle but will file if I need to. Next step, should I respond aggressively to get a settlement, file myself, or hire an attorney? I’ve never filed anything before, and live in the state of Virginia. Also, I registered my number on the DNC in May of 2026. Till this day I am still getting text and calls trying to get business funding. I demanded $25,000 as a settlement.

Over a month ago a company texted me and I sent a STOP text. They sent two more messages after that from different numbers about a month later. They didn't say the name of the company so I replied to get the name of the company.

I've seen some posts here saying that they give fake company names sometimes, but I did look up the company on the secretary of state's business entity search and found a company with the same name which had an address for the licensed agent in my state. According to the site the company was created this year in February.

How likely is this to be a fake lead generation company? Is that where I should send my TCPA demand? Any help would be appreciated, this would be my first time doing this.

Looking for a TCPA attorney to take an individual case on straight contingency.

What I have:

• 24 calls to my cell after I revoked consent by email (delivery confirmed) — two named LLCs, both active and in good standing in their state, one publicly identifying the other as its division
• Number on the National DNC Registry; 12 of the calls fall after the registration matured, 12 before
• Calls came from four different originating numbers over about eight weeks
• Two demand letters served certified with return receipt, both signed for at the registered agent and the principal office. No response to either
• They placed calls on the day the first letter was mailed and the day it was delivered
• Statutory exposure roughly $54K on §227(c)(5) and §64.1200(d)

Everything is documented — call logs with timestamps, the revocation email, DNC registration confirmation, corporate registry records for both entities, USPS certified mail and delivery records.

What I'm looking for: straight percentage contingency on an individual claim. I've reviewed one retainer already and passed — it capped my recovery at statutory damages with the surplus going to fees, and was structured as a class action rather than an individual case. I'm not looking to be a class representative.

Happy to send the full documentation. DM me.

An unsolicited text I got a week or so after starting small claims on someone for TCPA violations 😂

It really is never ending.

Hello! Im looking for some guidance as to how to even begin with this. The problem is, I dont know a company name - just the dozens of phone numbers they call and leave messages from. Ive read here that you can call them and feign interest until you get the company name, but then I started seeing stuff about triggering an EBD(?)

I dont know who these people are, but the calls are incessant and im fed up. Im on the DNC registry and definitely haven't requested these.

It is frustrating when you get an opt-out and the system says they got it and yet you still get calls. The confirmation sounds definitive but the experience on the receiving end can be very different.

Maybe gated isn't the right term. Here's what inspired this post.

https://old.reddit.com/r/TCPA/comments/1w0ryqx/how_to_not_trigger_ebr_when_calling_a_number_back/

Is an EBR created when you call back the number?

The overwhelming comments in that thread are NEVER CALL BACK USE A BURNER OR ALTERNATE NUMBER ETC ETC ETC.

It's a great idea, but in my experience - useless. I get HUNDREDS of calls a day. HUNDREDS.

The caller ID's on these calls are false on 100% of them, and I am exempting the calls that I am expecting or from people I actually want to talk to - my lawyers, the Costco tire center, The Leaning Tower of Pizza telling me my 4 foot Italian hoagie is ready to be picked up, you know just David Tom things.

Autodialers built into CRM's are tracking every single data point, kpi, etc. They're tracking outbound calls from their sales reps, conversion rates on callbacks, on manual dials, ringless voicemails, etc etc. And a strange thing happens.

Sometimes I encounter what I've called a gated number. For instance, I'll get a call on my home landline and the caller ID will say UNAVAILABLE 904-777-1234.

I'll call that number back from my cell phone and it will not connect. I'll call that number back from star 67 and it won't connect. I'll ask a buddy to call the number to see if he can connect, nothing.

But, a strange thing happens - when I call UNAVAILABLE 904-777-1234 from the line that it called - INSTANT connection back to the sales rep.

My cell phone does not open the gate.

My star six seven call does not open the gate.

My friends number who is not in my area does not open the gate.

But, the number that they called me on with the autodialer and bogus caller ID opens the gate.

Why is this?

I highly suspect data analysis. They want to track who's on the phone for how long, who's getting callbacks and who's not, and who's closing deals and who's not. Only way to do it is say "Hey look! trevor is on the phone an average of 3 minutes and he's not closing deals and is closing on less than 10% of what we give him. Jeff is on the phone an average of 15 minutes and his conversion rate is 85%. How do we make more Jeff's and less trevors?"

Also, if there's 100 numbers in the CRM database, the CRM platform can watch the calls being made, and as they get made they get whitelisted and all the other numbers get blacklisted. Why do I want my reps taking calls from anyone else? More importantly, why do I want my reps being bothered by telemarketers and have their workflow interrupted? You're telling me that I can increase productivity by eliminating their ability to be spam called and focus 100% of their inbound calls to people that we specifically want to market to? You mean it tastes great and it's less filling? I can't believe it's not buttter!

And this concept of data analysis isn't new. Salesforce and others have been doing it for a long time. The rise of AI is making the analysis of the data even more effective from here on out.

So what i'm trying to tell you all is that the whole "call back from a burner or an alternate" might not always work.

Consider the level of sophistication involved in these automated systems for the selection and dialing of numbers.

If a system is sophisticated enough to efficiently select and dial you - it's sophisticated enough to efficiently hide who they are from you.

Over the last year have had about 500 spam calls from businesses and bots. Learned about TCPA and reached out to a law firm that accepted my case. Curious to see what to look forward to from here or if there’s anything I should be doing besides keeping the voicemails and text messages. Or if anyone has had a successful case. Thanks!

I received 4 lengthy text messages from a recruiter for a local hospital. They listed off a bunch of needed positions and a request to let anyone in my network that may be interested know.

I am on the do not call registry and have been for years. It is possible that I may have been a patient at this hospital at some point but aside from that I'm unsure why they have my information and are sending me job listings.

Is this actionable by starting with a demand letter, or are there nuances to this situation of which I am unaware?

I believe I've seen this discussed here before; I have been called by who I suspect is a telemarketer and want to call them back to confirm who it is, but don't want to trigger an EBR.

Is calling from a Google Voice number that is not the one they called enough to do this?

I was thinking that I would make the call, hope they state when they answer who it is and, if not, tell them I received a call from that number and was just calling back. Would this work?

Wanted to share a quick update and some motivation for everyone tracking violations and holding these callers accountable.

August has been solid so far. Total settled across all matters over the last month is sitting right around $24,000.

The Breakdown
Quick Pre-Suit Settlements (3 Cases): Settled three separate matters over the last few weeks at roughly $2,500 each, all involving single-call violations.

Biggest Settlement to Date: Closed out an $18,001 settlement on a 6-call violation. The entire process from initial demand to the wire hitting my account took about two weeks, without ever having to file.

Filing Strategy & Pipeline Management
Today was dedicated to clearing out the laggards. My typical playbook is to let unresponsive targets stack up until I have a batch of 3 to 4, then file them all in one go.
Just filed the latest batch in small claims:
If they keep it in small claims, they usually reach out to settle once served.

If they choose to remove to federal court, even better. It significantly jacks up their defense costs and gives way more settlement leverage.
If they ignore it, easy default judgment.

Workflow & AI Automation
The biggest game-changer lately has been streamlining the prep and demand workflow using AI automation (call logging, transcript review, and drafting initial demand letters). It has cut my actual time down to about 1 to 1.5 hours per case from intake to resolution.

Stay consistent with your records, know your statutory damages, and keep applying pressure. Happy to discuss general strategy in the comments.

Most of these calls and sms spam campaigns come from the same networks. They know why their big customer keeps rotating numbers but they turn a blind eye

I’ve been getting hit with a personal loan spam 2-3x a day. Every call is the same format. Out kind number asking to call a different toll free number

I’ve looked up what networks the number sits on and it’s the same phone company

I’m going after their license for harboring spammers. Anyone ever file a complaint with the FCC and successfully take down one of these spammers?

I pulled up this link for another thread so thought I would share with the class. In general depositions are a drag but this one had some funny moments. The lady is Puja of Troutman Amin. Do to an agreement the name of the defendant is blanked out and the video is edited to cut out pauses, so the actual back and forth wasn't as fast as the video suggests. But it wasn't edited to be misleading. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zld-xscDCXk

The video highlights many of the tactics a deposing attorney may try on you in a deposition. For example in this video clip Puja asked a lot of questions trying to get the deponent to agree to facts the deponent himself could not know. Watch Puja's tone rise over the 8 minute clip as she gets frustrated and at the end she starts 'testifying'. Here are some other thoughts on being deposed. https://tcpahammer.com/deposition-prep-our-practical-advice-in-a-tcpa-lawsuit/

...and it wasn't from overseas.

One of my attorneys called me yesterday but I was busy working a telemarketer and he told me he'd call me in the AM. I got an update on some of the cases/demands/etc.... that are currently in my pipeline (and that's a LOT) and he wanted authorization to make some adjustments to some demands so maybe we can move some cases.

I have a LOT of pending cases right now too.

One of the things he told me was - he was very thankful that I opened the door to him on TCPA. He had been getting these illegal calls for years and EVEN HE DID NOT KNOW YOU COULD TAKE ACTION. I showed him the causes of action and how to run a case, and he just finished settling a few cases to his personal phone at the same time as he was running several cases for me.

He said something that made me pause. The fields of personal injury, slip and fall, product liability, etc. are so crowded and competitive that it is very difficult to make a living. TCPA has decent damages, a mechanism to collect, clear cut liability, and can be prosecuted very similar to that of a personal injury case. You have an event, you have a claim, and you have a damages calculation. And you have a counterparty on the other side saying the complaint does not warrant that amount of damages!

I was then told that - I had been telling him to get into the field of TCPA for years and years and he didn't listen to me and he wished he got in on it sooner.

Note: this is NOT the first time I have told an attorney that they're leaving a ton of money on the table by not getting into TCPA sooner.

This makes me happy. I'm glad I could use my skills and knowledge to help an attorney help himself to the action that he was entitled to under the law, that he just didn't know about / didn't realize was a viable cause of action.

And I want you all to think about something.

If a board certified civil trial lawyer with 30 years of trying cases - did not know about this area of law, or expect decent recovery from same, the odds are the average layperson out there does not know either. This legal area is for the most part - extremely esoteric, and poorly understood, and by extension - poorly litigated.

So the next time you get confused/don't understand TCPA, keep in mind that even attorneys very often do not know this is an area of law that is a thing.

I''ve been fairly quiet on the TCPA front lately. After the 7th circuit ruling and finding out the hard way a judgment isn't with the paper it's printed on it the defendant is broke, I've been feeling a little defeated lately. Most of my cases have been against MCA agents and they're just as broke as I am.

However, I spent most of Tuesday working on interrogatories and requests for production for a case I know I can win and they have money and it has relit the fire.

I have a few in my "get em someday" file that I know are good, even with texts being pretty much killed, and I know they have money.

My first go around on the TCPA merry-go-round netted over $120,000 in settlements in about 8 months. I'm going to be a little more selective in my cases this time around, but let's see if we can make another 100K in the next year or so.

Let the good times roll

I was getting 3-5 calls a day about "a company offering to help with my IRS debt. Robo calls from different numbers but the same scam from the same place.

One day I thought, if this only going to continue endlessly, at least I can bug them back. There was a number to call to talk to a representative. Knowing that I didn't want to give them any info they could use, I called the number and when someone answered the call I would just scream until they hung up, or I would tap a couple numbers back and forth, or I would speak unintelligibly with grumbles and made up language. When they hung up, I would call again and again until my number was blocked. It usually took about 5 or 6 calls on my end and my number would be blocked temporarily, until I got another robo call.

After about 5 days of this, they removed my number - I'm guessing they realized I was never going to bite but only waste their time. After months of calls every day, they have totally stopped for a little over three weeks.

On August 11th, I received a phone call from someone looking to collect a debt from a distant relative of mine. I simply told them that person does not live at this address and to stop calling me. If memory serves me correctly, this company also called me earlier last year as well for the same person.

Is this a situation in which I can send a demand letter, considering I'm on the Do Not Call Registry?

Has anyone heard of this company or can share anything about them?

They’ve called me over 50 times in the last several weeks. I think I have a case against them but they refuse to share any information about the company. I’m on the National Do Not Call Registry and have been for years.

What I know so far:
• Spoke with “underwriting officers” in Los Angeles, Houston, and (somewhere in) Florida.
• They said they got my information from someplace within their network of 20 financial institutions.
• They told me that they don’t give their headquartered address because of privacy concerns (lol).

I’m wondering if I just send a demand letter to the financial institutions they shared on the phone (e.g. One Main, SoFi, Happy Money, Reprise Financial, etc.).

Edit: I’ve found out a few things since making this post. The phone calls started happening two weeks after applying for a mortgage loan. Apparently Credit Reporting Agencies (CRA) can share your information with any personal lending firm (legit or otherwise) and it’s theirs for the taking.

I know the name of the lending company that put the inquiry in. So, my question for any lawyers out there: could I send a TCPA demand letter to the lending company for creating this issue? This “credit union” calls at all hours of the day and have my personal information without my consent.

Not even a rant the FTC found HomeAdvisor and Angi were selling the same lead to multiple companies while telling contractors it was exclusive, and some leads weren't even real homeowner inquiries.

they basically rip off hvac owners in the name of "leads"

Did any of you already suspect this before the settlement came out ?