TCPA in plain English for cold-callers
The federal rules, the state overlays, and the 'one specific thing' that trips up most wholesalers dialing motivated sellers.
We are not lawyers. This is plain-English summary material. Talk to a telecom lawyer before you scale up outbound.
The big three rules
- Federal DNC — if a number's on the federal do-not-call registry, you can't cold-dial it without an existing business relationship.
- State DNC — some states have their own registries that are STRICTER than federal. Texas, Florida, and Pennsylvania are worth checking specifically.
- Calling-time windows — 8am to 9pm in the called party's local time zone. Don't dial out of that window, ever.
Where most wholesalers trip
It's not the DNC rules. It's TCPA-litigator scrub. There's a small population of individuals who aggressively file TCPA suits against cold-callers — sometimes dozens a year, each one earning them a $500–1,500 statutory damage settlement. A good skip-trace vendor scrubs these known litigator phone numbers out of your delivered file. A bad one doesn't, and one $1,500 settlement wipes out a month of list pulls.
What we do
Every list we pull gets scrubbed against federal DNC, state DNC, and a current TCPA-litigator list. That's included — not an add-on, not a $0.02 upcharge. If a phone hits any of those scrubs, it comes off the file before you see it.
Next step
Turn the idea into a clearer acquisition workflow.
Bring the question from this note to the team. The product is being shaped around practical market and list-building decisions.