It’s bound to happen. Sooner or later, calling from social media sourced lists with their many cell phone numbers will cause a TCPA violation, maybe even a class action. Probably when you least expect it. But most business to business tech and software salespeople don’t think so. They need to call those cells. And the ones on the Do Not Call Lists. The ones the TCPA says you can’t dial with any automated assistance (which covers virtually 100% of B2B calls).
Recent Posts
If you’re making B2B calls, at least scrub for former TCPA Litigants. One of our clients scrubbed 13,000 numbers against our Previous Litigator list last week and got 35 hits. 35 pros you wouldn’t want to call. What are these guys doing on Business to Business calling lists anyway? Seems lots of cells are being picked up as business lines from social media sources lately. Data Compilers have access to previously hidden mobile numbers at Linked-In and Twitter and include them in company searches.
Business to Business callers have it wrong. They think by identifying and archiving cells they’ll go broke. Out of business. First, you can call cells - if you do it by hand and those numbers are not on the National or State Do Not Call Lists. Second, it's important to identify wireless numbers. It'll be tough to defend your wireless calling procedures against the CFPB, FTC, FCC, State AG’s and smart litigants if you don’t know which numbers are mobile. Not to mention B2B TCPA litigation is on the rise!
As a list broker, if you do nothing with compliance, there's a good chance it’ll come back to bite you today. If you help your clients with TCPA compliance, that implies liability exposure. Not good. The days of making businesses sign off on the DNC and TCPA are kind of over. Without any guidance, either they’ll get a threat letter from a professional litigator demanding payment or the CFPB will find out they don’t even identify cells, and will want to do an audit. Your client expects some call prohibition help today. At the very least, some warm and fuzzy direction.
Won't the previous litigants get scrubbed out anyway? You'd think so. But many former TCPA plaintiffs set traps enticing you to call. Some lawyers even have apps to sue your call center or individual solicitors. Whole communities sharing information just to trip you up. Should you mitigate the risk and insulate yourself from these pros? - You bet. But all litigator scrub lists are not created equal. Here's how to get and incorporate a Litigator Scrub into your compliance procedures.
Has the owner of the cell number you’re about to call changed? As a call center manager of permission-based communications, you can’t be entirely sure! About 25% of cell phone owners located in densely populated areas change their number each year. About a quarter of CFPB debt collector consumer complaints are for “no debt owed,” and most of those seem to be to the wrong party. And the FCC’s Declaratory Ruling of July 10th, 2015 confirmed: If a phone number has been reassigned, companies must stop calling the number after one attempt.
Seems B2B callers are getting the word on just how much pain previous TCPA litigants can cause - Just by saying they are going to sue you. Even if you are calling cell phones by hand (although that’s extremely rare in the B2B world –) And you've probably chosen not to register with the National DNC List as a free B2B exemption - because you're exempt anyway, right? Ahhh kind of.
One in five U.S. adults—an estimated 51 million people—will be contacted about medical bills by a collection agency in 2014, according to a study by NerdWallet Health and reported on by Collections&Credit Risk. Americans pay three times more in medical debt to collection agencies than they pay for credit card and bank debt combined, the study found.
Like most call centers and phone marketers, you’re probably calling previous TCPA, FDCPA, Do Not Call and FCRA litigants without even knowing it. These are the professional plaintiffs and their attorneys that have made a business of suing anyone that calls their cell phone. These are the folks that dominate the world of TCPA and Do Not Call Court Actions. And of course, the source of most class action lawsuits in the millions of dollars.
Direct-to-Voicemail (or Ringless Voicemail) cell messaging allows you to send a voicemail message directly to a wireless phone voicemail server – without ringing the phone or interrupting the recipient, and without charging the recipient. The cell owner retrieves their voicemail as they normally would. The program creates lots of callbacks from consumers for your call center associates. Direct-To-Voicemail has been around about three years now, with over 10 million certified deliveries.
