Apr 3, 2011
Just a little FYI, IF anyone is ever able to get a hold of the people responsible for these "gost calls" , i.e. an address of the actual buisness, all these calls to your cell phones (note only cell phones) are a TCPA violation of $500 a piece collectable to you. Per TCPA: "It shall be unlawful for any person within the United States, or any person outside the United States if the recipient is within the United States (A) to make any call (other than a call made for emergency purposes or made with the prior express consent of the called party) using any automatic telephone dialing system or an artificial or prerecorded voice—to any telephone number assigned to a paging service, cellular telephone service, specialized mobile radio service, or other radio common carrier service, or any service for which the called party is charged for the call".
Under this section, the following calls would not be allowed:
1. Calling a cell phone to telemarket if the caller uses an automatic telephone dialing device.
How to use this to our advantage.
The TCPA provides a private right of action in STATE court for anyone that is aggrieved by another person. The penalty is actual damages or $500 per call. That means the violations can add up quickly. If they call you twice a day for 7 day that is 14 calls times $500 each or $7,000. You can sue in state court, small claims court if the amount is less than their limits
In addition, the TCPA provides that for willfully or knowingly violating the Act the penalty is triples. That is right, if they are informed that they do not have consent to call and that the phone number is assigned to a cell phone the damages are $1500 per call.
It is important to keep a log off all of these calls. If your phone bill indicates incoming calling numbers, it is real simple.