Andres Diaz
New Member
- 6
Hahah this is a joke clearly right ?
Sarcasm does not transmit very clearly over the interwebs.
The Do Not Call List (DNC) Rules
- Thread starter zergkiller
- Start date
Hahah this is a joke clearly right ?
Sarcasm does not transmit very clearly over the interwebs.
- Thread starter
- #52
zergkiller
Expert
- 63
Well, I did call the State Attorney’s office in Austin. I spoke with an investigator for a bit, but she wasn’t very knowledgeable regarding actual prosecutions of people who violated any Do Not Call lists. Apparently, this isn’t one of the things they really pursue. The woman was very nice, but had no idea of the verbiage of the law and had to look that up on the internet. She did tell me that sometimes the state did prosecute people based on Federal Laws, and we terminated the conversation.
A bit later, she called me back and said she had spoken with an attorney who verified that the two laws had different language, and she emailed a lawsuit to me with the complaint and the results. The suite involved a plumbing company that called thousands of people once a day with the same message. They made no effort to remove you from the list at all. If you were in the data base, every day, you got a call. They were fined a total of $100K, $60K of which were court costs.
So here is my version of a summary. First, you have to really be egregious to get nailed. Second, if you have a license such as real estate or insurance, the state of Texas will not prosecute you for making personal calls to prospective clients picked from the phone book under Texas Law. They would enforce the Federal Law only. Thirdly, even if I couldn’t apologize enough, and someone were to complain to the state, and it was only one call, the chances of your being pursued are zip, and if anything did happen, you would probably be only warned. You would have to get a LOT of complaints before they actually did anything.
As far as my personal behavior goes, I was only worried because one of the companies I worked for in the past wanted me to get the client to call the referral to see if it was OK for me to call them. Although this could have been for MAs (?), and would be the best way socially, the idea has a certain awkwardness about it. For myself, there are too many small businesses available that need help with their financial futures and coverage.
A bit later, she called me back and said she had spoken with an attorney who verified that the two laws had different language, and she emailed a lawsuit to me with the complaint and the results. The suite involved a plumbing company that called thousands of people once a day with the same message. They made no effort to remove you from the list at all. If you were in the data base, every day, you got a call. They were fined a total of $100K, $60K of which were court costs.
So here is my version of a summary. First, you have to really be egregious to get nailed. Second, if you have a license such as real estate or insurance, the state of Texas will not prosecute you for making personal calls to prospective clients picked from the phone book under Texas Law. They would enforce the Federal Law only. Thirdly, even if I couldn’t apologize enough, and someone were to complain to the state, and it was only one call, the chances of your being pursued are zip, and if anything did happen, you would probably be only warned. You would have to get a LOT of complaints before they actually did anything.
As far as my personal behavior goes, I was only worried because one of the companies I worked for in the past wanted me to get the client to call the referral to see if it was OK for me to call them. Although this could have been for MAs (?), and would be the best way socially, the idea has a certain awkwardness about it. For myself, there are too many small businesses available that need help with their financial futures and coverage.
- 11,996
The FTC/FCC would be far less forgiving, they would have hit them at up to $16,000 per call. The plumbing company got lucky there.
- 8,707
Why would the State of Texas prosecute a federal law. That is the job of the US Attorney. Your right that the chances of getting caught and prosecuted a slim, but just realize the chance can happen and you will have no defense.
- 9,744
Unless you're Jon Corzine, and Obama tells Eric Holder not to prosecute cuz him and Jon are buds.
- Thread starter
- #56
zergkiller
Expert
- 63
Gosh, I never asked "Why". She just said that they work together. As it turns out, it was an air conditioning company, not a plumber, and the charges stated that the company didn't use the DNC list, didn't know who they were calling, and had generated more than 1000 complaints in about a year. At the time of the ruling, the company was still making calls.
Besides the fine, the court placed an injunction on the company to force them to buy the DNC list. The a/c company admitted no wrongdoing. It was a negotiated fine. But the prosecution said that both the Texas and National DNC laws had been violated.
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