Autodialers to your cell phone number is a $500-$1500 violation

Holy cow.  While googling to see if the bank can put me in their autodialer for mortgage collections, I ran into this little story about a guy who sues his debt collectors over violations of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) and the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA). 

Check this out at the Broken Credit Blog:

In the next four years, Cunningham accused debt collectors of misrepresenting the amount he owed (an FDCPA violation that entitles a consumer to collect up to $1,000). He sued over prerecorded and auto-dialed calls to his cellular phone (a TCPA violation worth up to $1,500 per call). He also filed complaints that agencies failed to investigate his claims that his credit file contains inaccurate information, a breach of the Fair Credit Reporting Act worth up to $1,000 per violation. All told, he filed 15 other lawsuits in federal court without the help of a lawyer, earning himself settlements totaling more than $20,000.


“Most people hear about the abuses that debt collectors do, but you just didn’t hear about the second part of it, where people sue the collectors,” he says.

A very quick google on Telephone Consumer Protection Act confirms that this is true, you can sue.  Here is just one link I found from an Alabama law firm. 

http://www.alabamaconsumer.com/CM/Articles/IllegalCallsToCellPhones.asp

More links:
http://bankruptcy-law.freeadvice.com/collections/debt-collectors-calling-cell-phone.htm

By the way, I still don't know if the bank can do it.  But I have a boat load of recorded messages in my cell phone from another bill collector and I've sent them certified letters twice asking them not to do it.

I think I'm going to put together some documentation this weekend and contact my PrePaid Legal attorney on Monday.