The Federal Trade Commission & Federal Communications Commission both regulate phone calls on a federal level. Some states in the US have their own rules regarding robocalling, with some states having banned robocalling and robotexting in most cases. Robocalling laws are meant to protect consumers from unwanted marketing calls. However, they apply to telemarketing which means phone calls or messages with a financial motive i.e., to persuade someone to make and investment, buy goods/services, etc. The TCPA or Telephone Consumer Protection Act is the main robocalling law in use. The law stipulates when robocalling or sending robtexts is legal/illegal. TCPA […]

What is a robocall?  The FTC defines robocalls as calls where you hear recorded messages as opposed to a live person. Robocalls originate from computerized autodialers that are programmed to deliver pre-recorded messages.  The calls are usually associated with telemarketing and political phone campaigns, but they can be used for emergency or public-service announcements, among other purposes. Are robocalls illegal? If you get a lot of robocalls, there is a high likelihood that such calls are illegal. US political parties, unaffiliated campaigns, unions among other organizations can make robocalls legally. The US Do-Not-Call Registry doesn’t include political robocalls. However, the […]

Definition of spam phone calls Spam phone calls are irrelevant, and inappropriate phone calls made mostly for fraudulent or criminal reasons. Crank calls, unsolicited telemarketing phone calls, as well as abusive or obscene phone calls directed mostly to women, qualify as spam calls.  Other phone calls that fit into this definition include impersonation calls and tech-support scam calls.  Quick spam phone call statistics in the US Americans got 26 billion spam calls in 2018, representing a 46% increase from the previous year.   50% of all cell phone calls in 2019 will be spam phone calls.  Spam calls accounted for 3.7% […]

What is a spam text message? Spam text messages can be defined as junk messages sent to a mobile phone as text messages through SMS (Short Message Service) without prior express permission or invitation from the receiver.  Is spam text illegal? Since 2004, it has been illegal to send spam text messages or spam SMS under the TCPA (Telephone Consumer Protection Act). United States citizens who get unsolicited text messages have the right to take legal action against the senders.  You must permit all senders of text messages containing commercial messages first; otherwise, such messages will be deemed as unsolicited. […]