Got one? Breathe. Then read this.
You opened an envelope and it says your business broke a federal law called the TCPA by calling or texting someone. There is a dollar figure and a deadline. You are not the first and the next hour matters more than the letter. Seven short pages, written for the owner, not the lawyer. Start at the top.
Start: is this a scam?In the order you will ask them
- Is this a scam?
Most TCPA demand letters are real. Here is how to tell in twenty minutes: the entity, the signer, the calls, and the one thing a scam cannot fake.
- How much trouble am I in?
The honest arithmetic. $500 per call or text, up to $1,500 if willful, times every call in four years. What the letter counts and what a lawsuit counts.
- Do not do this.
Calling the sender angry, deleting records, keeping on calling, paying in a panic, and three more. Each one is common. Each one costs more than the letter.
- What to do today.
Five things to do on the day a TCPA demand letter lands. Stop, save, read, note the date, tell one person. Nothing else until tomorrow.
- Should I call them?
Not yet. What a phone call to the sender gives them, what it gives you, and what to do instead if you want to know whether the letter is real.
- It was our vendor.
Probably. The business the calls were made for answers to the person called. The vendor answers to you. What that means for the letter in your hand.
- Can I just ignore it?
You can. Here is what happens next if you do: referral, a filed case, discovery of every call, and the letter itself as evidence that you knew.