I’m reviewing both presentations together as they are a knock-out punch for robocalling, plus protecting consumers and small/medium businesses. The chit-chat is both fun and insightful.

Their TADSummit sessions were:

• Telephone Consumer Protection Act for the International Audience. Eric Troutman, Czar of the TCPA, Tsar of the TSR, Telecom Attorney, Partner Troutman Amin, LLP, Founder TCPAWorld.com, Founder and President R.E.A.C.H
• The Truth of RoboCalling in the US. Alex Quilici, CEO @ YouMail

We’ve had both Eric and Alex on the TADSummit podcast. Between the podcasts and the TADSummit presentations, things are moving fast in the industry.

• Podcast 50: TADSummit Innovators, Alex Quilici, YouMail
• Podcast 63: TADSummit Innovators, Eric J Troutman, The Czar of TCPAWorld

Telephone Consumer Protection Act for the International Audience

Eric explains the complexity of the laws governing telecommunications in the US. Before 2015 it was relatively simple, the Telecommunications Act (1996) and the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (1991). TCPA is a federal law that governs outreach *calling people” on regulated technologies. In 2015 the FCC responded to pressure from the government on all the robocalls and opened the gates to class action lawsuits.

There are many ‘types’ of laws: federal: applies across the US; state: applies within a state; judicial as judges can also set laws; and administrative, laws the FCC sets. Given the partisan nature of the US, there are many ‘bun fights’ (heated arguments) across these divisions, that are sometimes referred to the Supreme Court which is also partisan.

If you are placing calls in the US you must be up to date. That is why I find TCPA World so important to follow. Consent is the hot topic, and if its marketing messages there must be express written consent, if it’s information a lower level of express consent, which can be oral. But the consent needs about 15 components to meet TCPA requirements. If you’re in violation, the fines are $500-$1500 per call, and if you’re making millions of calls, that’s bankruptcy.

There is a bar of TCPA plaintiff lawyers (ambulance chasers) waiting for violations so they can implement class action lawsuits against the caller. For a country with 4.5B robocalls per month, and $25B in theft from robocalls per year (source truecaller), it’s a complex , confusing, and potentially bankrupting landscape. Eric defends companies against the ambulance chasers.

Eric provides a great explanation on why the Do Not Call (DNC) list came into existence in 2003. I signed up and saw no impact. Telemarketing can fall into free speech, hence why the DNC was created, but it proved ineffective in my experience.

Lead generators came into existence, that gather phone numbers of people who were happy to receive messages / calls on particular topics. But practices of some lead generators were dodgy, hence the move to express written consent with the company named. But still there are chancers who avoid the TCPA plaintiff lawyers.

Our discussion moves onto REACH, Responsible Enterprises Against Consumer Harassment. REACH recently issued a set of standards designed to assure lead generators respect consumer privacy to an extent greater than mandated by law. The goal is to assure a healthy ecosystem where businesses can exist and thrive while consumer privacy is respected and robocalls are NEVER made to a consumer without consent.

Eric reviews the work of TCPA World in empowering people to stay on top of the confusing mess in consumer outreach law. Then there’s a fun discussion as we hand over between Eric and Alex.

The Truth of RoboCalling in the US.

Alex brings the numbers and 3 excellent ideas on how we can reduce robocalling.

He reviews all the migitations, such as STIR/SHAKEN, Industry Traceback Group, all the FCC regulations, and KYC (Know Your Customer) for a 15% drop in robocall volume over the past 5 years.

Alex provides a great review on the 80% drop in scam calls. But what is happening is after years of blasting the US population, they’ve now discovered the vulnerable people, and are targeting people. Scammers have improved returns by 72%. Plus they’ve discovered the recipes using SMS to target people at lower costs. Hence the rise in SMS scams.

Telemarketing has increased 3X between 2021 to 2024 as scams are hiding there, spoofing has been made more difficult from STIR/SHAKEN. From a consumer perspective the problem remains at roughly the same volume. Scammers are innovators, the fight is a game of whack-a-mole, and the response rate from the PSTN ecosystem remains too slow.

Alex’s 3 mandates:

1. Any autodialed call must leave a compliance voicemail. This targets the annoying 2.5B robocall hangups per month. It raises the robocaller’s costs and improves targeting of the robocallers who do not leave a VM. Eric likes Alex’s idea, and raises a key point the leaving a VM increases the regulatory scrutiny. This will need to be rationalized with the FCC’s requirements on voice messages.
2. Carriers must actively monitor for illegal and unlawful behavior. This targets 1.5B robocalls per month. YouMail have a great solution for this. There are costs to comply, but action is required as I pay my carrier for the PSTN service, which is highly degraded from 20 years ago.
3. Make consent about a telephone number. This targets the 1B+ calls made without consent. Alex was worried Eric may object to this idea. However, he thinks its innovative, and customer experience will be key, as we do not remember phone numbers anymore.

The above 3 ideas can be implemented quickly and potentially impacts 4 to 5B robocalls per month. Of course the scammers will discover new work arounds. For example hammering SMS harder. But this is a whack-a-mole game, there is no alternative to whacking.

There a great discussion from 46 minutes on, where we discuss the ideas, and additional steps to consider, such a receipts for consent. Combined, these presentations and discussions are the best I’ve experience on robocalling.