The Telephone Consumer Protection Act (“TCPA”) provides for $500 – $1,500 in damages per call for wrong number debt collection calls to a cell phone. The reason for that is that the TCPA prohibits using any automatic telephone dialing system or an artificial or prerecorded voice without the prior express
consent of the called party. Almost all debt collectors use auto-dialers to initiate phone calls. Often you can detect this because of a pause between the time that you answer your phone and when the call is routed to the individual who is assigned to speak to you.
When a person owes a debt and then changes cell phone numbers, that number is often re-assigned to another person who is then the unhappy recipient of calls meant for the previous owner of the number. In this situation, a debt collectors cannot possibly have your “prior written consent” to call you on your cell phone because they are not even looking for you.
Often these cases are brought as class actions in which many hundreds or thousands of people have been subjected to similar calls. Usually, people who act to bring these cases receive “incentive awards,” which are additional financial compensation for their time and effort in taking action.
If you have received call on your cell phone from a debt collection company looking for somebody, get in touch with us via this form (or call or email us). We will review your submission free of charge and keep it strictly confidential. When we take a TCPA case we do not charge you any fees: All of our fees come from the defendants.
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