Robocalls and automated texts
A company that calls your cell phone with a prerecorded or artificial voice, or with an autodialer, without your prior express consent can violate the Telephone Consumer Protection Act. The TCPA sets statutory damages of $500 per violation, which a court may raise to $1,500 if the violation was willful or knowing. It applies to original creditors as well as collectors, but unlike the FDCPA it has no clause making the company pay your attorney's fees.
Yes, some robocalls are illegal, and the law puts a price on each one. The Telephone Consumer Protection Act makes it unlawful for any person to call a cell phone using an autodialer or an artificial or prerecorded voice without the called party's prior express consent. It also covers prerecorded-voice calls to a residential landline. Collection calls are not exempt.
Because the TCPA counts each call, it works differently from the FDCPA. It also reaches banks and lenders collecting their own debts, which the FDCPA generally does not.
What it looks like
- The prerecorded message. "This is an important message regarding your account. Please call us back at..." played by a machine to your cell phone.
- Calls for someone else. Robocalls to your number about a debt owed by a stranger or a former owner of the number, whom you never authorized.
- Calls after you said stop. Automated calls that continue after you told the caller to stop calling.
- Automated texts. Machine-sent collection texts to your cell phone.
- Artificial-voice systems. A synthetic voice that asks you to press a number to speak to a representative.
The law
Under 47 U.S.C. § 227(b)(1)(A)(iii), it is unlawful for any person to make any call, other than for emergency purposes or with the prior express consent of the called party, using any automatic telephone dialing system or an artificial or prerecorded voice, to a cell phone number. Section 227(b)(1)(B) separately bars artificial or prerecorded-voice calls to a residential line without prior express consent, subject to exceptions.
The Supreme Court narrowed the autodialer half of the rule in Facebook, Inc. v. Duguid, 592 U.S. 395 (2021). To qualify as an automatic telephone dialing system, a device must have the capacity to use a random or sequential number generator to store or produce the numbers it calls. Equipment that only dials numbers from a stored list may not qualify. The prerecorded and artificial voice half of the rule was not affected, so a prerecorded message to your cell phone without consent remains a violation whatever equipment placed the call.
Texts count. In Campbell-Ewald Co. v. Gomez, 577 U.S. 153 (2016), the Court treated it as undisputed that a text message to a cell phone is a "call" under § 227(b)(1)(A)(iii).
A robocall from a debt collector can also violate the FDCPA if it is part of a harassing call pattern (15 U.S.C. § 1692d(5)), or if the message fails to say it is from a debt collector (§ 1692e(11)). Those claims carry fee-shifting. See harassing phone calls.
What you have to show
That the call went to your cell phone (or a residential line, for prerecorded voice), that it used a prerecorded or artificial voice or a qualifying autodialer, who made it, and when. Consent is the usual defense, so keep anything showing you never gave it or took it back. Voicemails that capture the recorded message are the strongest evidence.
What you can recover
The TCPA lets you recover your actual monetary loss or $500 in statutory damages for each violation, whichever is greater, and a court may increase the award up to three times, $1,500 per violation, if the violation was willful or knowing (47 U.S.C. § 227(b)(3)). You can also ask the court to order the calls stopped. The TCPA has no fee-shifting clause, so it does not make the company pay your lawyer.
If the caller is a debt collector, an FDCPA claim can travel with the TCPA claim. A collector that violates the FDCPA is liable for actual damages plus additional statutory damages of up to $1,000 per lawsuit (15 U.S.C. § 1692k(a)), and the FDCPA requires a company found liable to pay the consumer's reasonable attorney's fees and costs. This site does not estimate what a case is worth.
What to do now
- Save every robocall voicemail. The recording proves the prerecorded voice. Back up the files off the phone.
- Screenshot call and text history. Dates, times and numbers, for every automated call and text.
- Tell the caller to stop. Say it on a live call and put it in writing. Note the date.
- Keep your phone records. Your carrier's records show the number called was a cell line and list each call.
- Log it. The call log tracks every call, which also helps with an FDCPA frequency claim.
The clock
| Claim | Time to sue | Authority |
|---|---|---|
| TCPA | 4 years (federal catch-all) | 28 U.S.C. § 1658(a) |
| FDCPA | 1 year from each violation | 15 U.S.C. § 1692k(d) |
| Florida FCCPA | 2 years from the violation | Fla. Stat. § 559.77(4) |
| New York GBL 349 | 3 years | N.Y. CPLR 214(2) |
The TCPA's longer period means robocalls from years ago may still be actionable even when an FDCPA claim on the same calls has expired.
In New York, New Jersey and Florida
New York. The TCPA applies in full. A deceptive or harassing robocall campaign can also be challenged under GBL 349, which lets the court award a prevailing consumer reasonable attorney's fees. See the New York page.
New Jersey. The TCPA and FDCPA apply in full. See the New Jersey page.
Florida. The FCCPA bars willfully communicating with a debtor with such frequency as can reasonably be expected to harass (Fla. Stat. § 559.72(7)) and communicating between 9 p.m. and 8 a.m. without consent (§ 559.72(17)). It reaches original creditors, and the FCCPA requires a company found liable to pay the consumer's reasonable attorney's fees and costs, which the TCPA does not. See the Florida page.
Common questions
Does the TCPA cover every collection call to my cell phone?
No. It covers calls made with an automatic telephone dialing system or an artificial or prerecorded voice, without prior express consent. After Facebook v. Duguid, an autodialer must use a random or sequential number generator, so equipment that only dials a stored list of numbers may not qualify. Calls that use a prerecorded or artificial voice are covered regardless of the dialing equipment.
I gave my number to the lender years ago. Is that consent?
Collectors often argue that giving your number when you opened an account was consent to collection calls. Whether that holds, and whether you later revoked it, depends on the facts. Consent must be from the called party, so calls meant for someone else can be a different story.
Does a text message count as a call?
The Supreme Court described it as undisputed that a text message to a cell phone is a call under the TCPA's autodialer provision, in Campbell-Ewald Co. v. Gomez. An automated text therefore can raise the same issues as a robocall, subject to the Duguid definition.
Will the company pay my lawyer if I win a TCPA case?
The TCPA has no fee-shifting clause. That is different from the FDCPA, the FCRA and the FCCPA, which require a company found liable to pay the consumer's reasonable attorney's fees and costs. TCPA claims are often brought alongside FDCPA claims for that reason.
Tell us what they did.
One conversation with an attorney, in your language. We tell you which laws the collector or the credit bureau broke, which deadline runs first, and what to save this week. If it is not a case we can take, we say so and tell you where to go.
(718) 484-7510The FDCPA and the FCRA require a company found liable to pay the consumer’s reasonable attorney’s fees and costs. Our fee arrangement is confirmed in a written retainer before we begin. English, Russian and Spanish in-house; an interpreter for any other language.