Do Not Call list violations

What actually counts as a violation

Not every unwanted call is a violation, and being clear about the line helps. In general, a Do Not Call violation is a telemarketing call (or text) that breaks one of these rules:

• It went to a number on the National Do Not Call Registry, more than about 31 days after you registered.
• It came after you personally told that company to stop calling you.
• It used a prerecorded or artificial voice to market to you without your written permission.

Two lists, not one

This trips a lot of people up. There are two separate do-not-call obligations a company can break:

• The federal registry at donotcall.gov, run by the FTC. One registration covers every law-abiding telemarketer.
• The company’s internal list. When you tell a specific business “stop calling me,” they’re required to add you to their own do-not-call list and honor it, whether or not you’re on the federal registry.

That second one matters because even a company you once did business with has to stop once you ask. Ignoring your request is its own violation.

The practical upshot: you don’t have to be on the federal registry to have rights. The moment you tell a caller to stop and they keep dialing, you may have a claim on the internal-list side alone. And if you’re on both, registered and having told them to stop, you’ve got two independent grounds, which strengthens the picture.

Who’s behind the violations

The companies racking up these violations tend to fall into a few buckets:

• Lead-generation and high-pressure sales outfits selling solar, insurance, home warranties, debt relief.
• Companies that buy your number from a list broker and dial it without checking the registry.
• Businesses that hire a dialer and then claim they didn’t know the calls were going out.

That last point is important: the law can reach the company whose product is being sold, not just the boiler room placing the calls.

What a violation is worth

This is where Do Not Call violations get concrete. The Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) puts a fixed price on each illegal call.

Because the figure is per call, the math is simple: number of illegal calls multiplied by $500 to $1,500. A pattern that runs for weeks or months can be worth real money. Results vary and every case is different, but the structure of the law makes even a handful of calls worth a look.

What tips a call from the $500 floor toward the $1,500 ceiling is whether the violation was willful, meaning the company knew, or should have known, it shouldn’t be calling. Dialing a number plainly on the registry, or one where you’d already said stop, supports a willful finding. That’s also why your records matter so much: they show the caller had no good excuse.

Reporting vs. recovering

Reporting a violation to the government and recovering money for it are two different paths, and you can do both. Filing a complaint at donotcall.gov or reportfraud.ftc.gov helps regulators spot patterns, but it doesn’t put money in your hands. A private TCPA claim is what can actually recover the $500-to-$1,500-per-call damages for you.

How to find out what yours is worth

Save your call log, voicemails, and any spam-text screenshots, and note when you registered or asked the caller to stop. Then have it reviewed. Max Morgan, Esq. looks at these for free and works on contingency. His fee comes from any recovery, and if there’s none, you owe no attorney’s fee.

Related: Do Not Call violations overview · Calls after you said stop · Robocall settlements · Do I qualify?