Federal Law

47 U.S.C. §227 · 47 C.F.R. §64.1200

A call you didn't ask for is evidence.

Get on the list. Log every call. Put the seller on notice. This kit does all three from your phone.

The registry

Free · permanent · never expiresRegister at donotcall.gov or call 1-888-382-1222 from the phone

When it bites

31 days after you registerSellers must scrub against a registry copy no older than 31 days

What a violation is worth

$500 per call — up to $1,500Trebled if the violation was willful or knowing · 47 U.S.C. §227(b)(3), (c)(5)

Core message

The registry is not a force field. It is a tripwire. It doesn't stop the call — it makes the call illegal, and an illegal call is a claim you can prove.

The four-part test

Before you can sue, you need all four:

You were registered

More than 31 days before the call

It was a sales call

Or a robocall / prerecorded voice

You never consented

And there's no business relationship

You know who to sue

The seller behind the call, by name

Number four is the hard one. The dialer is usually offshore and judgment-proof. The money is with the seller whose product was pitched — so your job on the call is to get a company name, a callback number, and a website before you hang up. The Notice tab has a script.

How this kit works

Verify you're on the list

Registration is what turns an annoying call into an illegal one. Confirm it, save the date, and keep the confirmation email.

Log every call while it's fresh

Date, time, number, what they were selling, who they said they were. The kit flags which federal rules each call breaks and cites them for you.

Send the notice

The kit builds a demand letter for each caller — the itemized call table, the statutes, an evidence-preservation demand, and a deadline. You print it, sign it, and mail it certified.

What the registry will not fix

Calls the registry doesn't cover

Political campaigns and PACs. Not "telephone solicitation" — the registry does not apply.
Charities calling on their own behalf. (A for-profit telefundraiser calling for a charity must still honor your do-not-call request to that charity.)
Debt collectors and other purely informational calls — no sale is being pitched. Those are governed by the FDCPA and state law instead.
Surveys and polls, if nothing is being sold.
Companies you already do business with. An established business relationship runs 18 months from your last purchase or payment, and 3 months from an inquiry or application — but it ends the moment you tell them to stop calling.
Anyone you gave permission to. That sweepstakes entry, that quote form with the tiny "partners may contact you" box — that's consent until you revoke it, in writing.

And the ones that break the law anyway

Outright scammers — the auto warranty, the fake Amazon charge, the "your account has been compromised" — already ignore every rule on this page. Registering does nothing to them, and neither does a demand letter to a spoofed number.

For those: don't press 1, don't speak, report them at reportfraud.ftc.gov, and ask your carrier about free call-blocking. This kit is aimed at the other kind — the real, findable, U.S. company whose sales floor is calling numbers it was legally required to scrub.

Not legal advice. This is a self-help documentation tool built on public law. It does not create an attorney–client relationship, it can't tell you whether your specific call is actionable, and its damage figures are what the statute allows — not a prediction of what you'd recover. Deadlines and procedure vary; talk to a consumer-protection attorney (many take TCPA cases on contingency) before you file anything.

Are you on the list?

Registration is free, permanent, and it is the foundation of every claim in this kit. Takes about two minutes.

Fastest path

Register or verify by phone

Call from the phone you want protected. It registers that number without any typing, and it works for verification too.

1-888-382-1222National Do Not Call Registry · free · TTY 1-866-290-4236

donotcall.gov is the only official site, and it is always free. Anyone charging you to register, or offering to "renew" a registration, is running a scam — registrations do not expire.

The verification walkthrough

Open the verify page

Enter up to three phone numbers and an email address. There's no account and no password.

Check your email

The FTC sends a confirmation with each number's registration date. Click the link in it — that's the step people miss.

Save the proof — twice

Screenshot the confirmation page and keep the email. If you ever file, the registration date is the first fact you'll have to prove. Don't delete it.

Record the date below

This kit uses it to calculate when your protection took effect and to timestamp every letter it writes.

Your registration

Saved on this device only

Your phone number

Used in the letters this kit writes. It never leaves your phone.

Date you registered it

From your confirmation email. If you registered years ago and can't find it, verify again — the email restates the original date.

Line type

Cell numbers get a second layer of protection: robocalls and autodialed texts to them are barred outright.

Your name (for the letters)

Mailing address (for the letters)

While you're in there

Cell, home line, the kids' phones, the old number you still forward — each one is separately registered, and each one is separately protected.
New number? Register it the day you get it. A recycled number inherits nothing, and the 31-day clock restarts.
Business lines are a gray area: §227(c) protects residential subscribers. A cell you use personally generally counts; the line at your shop generally doesn't.

Turn on the free blocking too

iPhone: Settings → Apps → Phone → Silence Unknown Callers. They go straight to voicemail — and voicemail is evidence, so check it before deleting.
Android: Phone app → ⋮ → Settings → Spam and Call Screen.
Every major carrier has a free labeling/blocking service. Ask for it by name.
Blocking and suing are not in tension: keep the record of what got through.

Where the 31 days comes from. Telemarketers get a safe harbor only if they scrub their lists against a registry copy obtained no more than 31 days before the call — 47 C.F.R. §64.1200(c)(2)(i)(D). Practically: a call on day 32 has no excuse.

Call Log

One entry per call. The kit checks each one against the federal rules and tells you what it violates.

Notice Builder

Pick a caller. The kit assembles the demand letter from your log — itemized calls, citations, evidence hold, deadline.

The Law, Plainly

What each rule actually says, what it's worth, and who can enforce it.

The two claims that pay

§227(b) Robocalls & autodialed texts

Bans artificial or prerecorded voice calls, and autodialed calls and texts, to a cell phone without your prior express consent — and prerecorded telemarketing to a home line without your prior express written consent.

Registration not required. This one protects you whether or not you're on the list.
One call is enough to sue. There is no "more than one" threshold here.
A text message counts as a call.
Worth: $500 per violation, or your actual loss if greater; up to $1,500 if willful or knowing. 47 U.S.C. §227(b)(3).
Also requires prerecorded messages to state who's calling at the start and give a callback number — 47 C.F.R. §64.1200(b).

§227(c) The Do-Not-Call claim

Covers the registry itself (47 C.F.R. §64.1200(c)(2)), the company's own internal do-not-call list (§64.1200(d)), and the 8am–9pm calling window (§64.1200(c)(1)). Extended to wireless numbers by §64.1200(e).

The threshold that trips people up: you must have received more than one call within a 12-month period from or on behalf of the same entity. One call, however outrageous, is not a §227(c) case. 47 U.S.C. §227(c)(5).
Ask them to stop, in words, and write down the date. Every later call from that company violates §64.1200(d)(3) on its own — registry or not. They must honor the request within a reasonable time, and in no event more than 30 days.
They must also maintain a written do-not-call policy and give you a copy on demand — §64.1200(d)(1). Ask for it. Most sales floors can't produce one, and that failure is itself the violation.
Worth: $500 per violation, or actual loss if greater; up to $1,500 if willful or knowing. §227(c)(5).

Rules with no private right of action

TSR Telemarketing Sales Rule

The FTC's rule — 16 C.F.R. Part 310. It bans registry calls, calls outside 8am–9pm local time (§310.4(c)), caller-ID blocking (§310.4(a)(8)), abandoned "dead air" calls (§310.4(b)(1)(iv)), and requires the caller to promptly identify the seller and say it's a sales call (§310.4(d)).

But: a private citizen can only sue under the TSR with $50,000 or more in actual damages — 15 U.S.C. §6104. Below that, it's the FTC's and the state AG's to enforce. Cite it in your letter as leverage and file the complaint; don't build your case on it.

§227(e) Caller ID spoofing

The Truth in Caller ID Act bars transmitting misleading caller ID with intent to defraud or harm. Penalties are steep — but only the FCC can bring them. Report it; you can't sue on it.

What they will argue back

Their defense	What beats it
Consent	Make them produce it. Demand the signed record, the date, the IP address, the URL, and the exact disclosure you supposedly agreed to. "A lead vendor sold us your number" is not consent.
Established business relationship	18 months from your last purchase, 3 months from an inquiry — and it dies the instant you say stop. Pin down the date of your last transaction with them.
"We're exempt"	Political, charitable, survey, and informational calls are outside the registry. But if a product or service was pitched at any point in the call, it's a solicitation.
"It wasn't us"	Sellers can be liable for the vendors dialing on their behalf under ordinary agency principles. Name the seller whose product was sold and make them explain the relationship.
Not a residential subscriber	§227(c) protects residential subscribers. Be able to say plainly that the number is your personal, residential line — and don't register a business line for this purpose.
Wrong number / reassigned	Note whether they asked for someone else. It's still a violation if they kept calling after you told them the number is yours.

Filing

Deadline, venue, and what it costs

Four years. TCPA claims run on the federal catch-all limitations period, 28 U.S.C. §1658. Older calls still document a pattern — they just may not be independently recoverable.
Either court. TCPA claims can be brought in federal court or in state court, including small claims — which is how most individual robocall cases actually get resolved. Filing fees are typically $30–$100, and you don't need a lawyer.
Small claims caps vary by state (roughly $2,500–$25,000). At $500–$1,500 a call, a dozen calls can exceed a low cap — check yours before you decide how many calls to sue on.
You must serve a real entity. Get the seller's registered agent from your Secretary of State's business search — that's who the summons goes to.
Many consumer attorneys take these on contingency. If you have a real pattern from a real company, get a consult before you file pro se.

Where to complain (do this regardless)

Complaints don't pay you, but they build the government's case — and the FTC's public complaint data is how enforcement sweeps get built.

Primary sources

Not legal advice. Statutes and rules change, courts split, and your facts matter more than any summary. Verify every citation against the current text before you rely on it, and consult a licensed attorney in your state about your own case.