If your phone rings with yet another unsolicited pitch for a loan you never asked about, a warranty you don’t need, or a credit card offer from a company you’ve never heard of, you’re not powerless. Federal law gives you the right to sue—and collect real money for every illegal call.

The Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) is one of the strongest consumer protection statutes on the books. It imposes strict penalties on companies that make automated or prerecorded calls to your cell phone without your consent. And unlike most federal claims, you don’t need a government agency to enforce it. You can file suit yourself.

This guide explains what the law covers, how to identify the companies behind the calls, and how to build a case that makes robocallers pay.

The numbers: The TCPA awards $500–$1,500 per illegal call or text, carries a four-year statute of limitations, and TCPA filings doubled in 2025—making it one of the most actively litigated consumer protection laws on the books.

What the TCPA Actually Prohibits

The TCPA targets several specific practices. If you’re receiving unsolicited loan pitches by robocall, chances are the caller is violating multiple provisions simultaneously.

• Autodialed or prerecorded calls to cell phones without prior express written consent. For marketing calls, verbal consent isn’t enough—the law requires written permission. If you never signed up for anything, every call is a separate violation.
• Do Not Call Registry violations. If your number is registered at donotcall.gov and you’re still receiving telemarketing calls, that’s an independent violation—even from live callers, not just robocalls.
• Calls after you’ve revoked consent. Under FCC rules effective April 2025, you can revoke consent by any reasonable means—saying “stop,” texting “STOP,” or telling the caller to remove you. The company has 10 business days to comply. Every call after that is a willful violation at the $1,500 tier.
• AI-generated voice calls. The FCC has ruled that AI-generated voices qualify as “artificial or prerecorded” under the TCPA. A call that sounds human but is actually AI is still covered.
• Calls outside permitted hours. Telemarketing calls before 8:00 a.m. or after 9:00 p.m. in your time zone violate the TCPA regardless of consent.

Step 1: Build Your Evidence File

Before you can sue, you need proof. Start documenting every unwanted call right now—even before you know who’s behind them.

What to Record for Every Call

• Screenshot your call log immediately. Date, time, and the number displayed. Don’t rely on memory.
• Save every voicemail. Prerecorded messages are direct evidence of a TCPA violation. Back them up to cloud storage or email them to yourself.
• Keep your phone bills. Carrier records show incoming call history and can be used to trace the source. Retain them for the full four-year limitations period.
• Keep a written log. Note whether the call was a prerecorded message or live person, what product or service was pitched, and whether you told them to stop calling.
• Don’t delete anything. Keep your phone handset through any litigation to prevent spoliation issues.

Step 2: Identify the Caller

This is the critical challenge. Robocallers hide behind spoofed numbers, shell companies, and third-party lead generators. But they can be found.

Answer and Extract Information

The most effective identification technique is counterintuitive: pick up the phone. Stay on the line, get transferred to the “live agent,” and before providing any personal information, ask: What company are you with? What’s your website? What’s your mailing address? Can you send me something by email? Even one of these details can be enough to identify the entity behind the calls and serve a complaint.

Use Technology and Public Records

• Reverse phone lookups. Services like Hiya, Nomorobo, CallerSmart, or even a Google search of the number can sometimes reveal the company or lead generator behind it.
• Check the FCC’s Robocall Mitigation Database. All voice service providers must certify their STIR/SHAKEN implementation status. This can help identify which VoIP provider originated the call. Search it at fcc.gov/robocall-mitigation-database.
• STIR/SHAKEN attestation data. The FCC’s caller ID authentication framework enables carriers to verify that caller ID information is legitimate. While there’s no private right of action under STIR/SHAKEN itself, the authentication data makes identifying robocallers in TCPA litigation far more practical. Your carrier may provide this information upon request.
• Subpoena carrier records. Once litigation is filed, you can subpoena your carrier’s call detail records and, through the originating carrier, trace back to the entity that placed the call. The Industry Traceback Group (ITG) also traces illegal robocalls back to their originating provider, and their data can surface through discovery.

Step 3: Confirm Your Legal Claims

For unsolicited loan marketing robocalls to your cell phone, you likely have multiple independent violations per call—each carrying its own statutory damages.

• No prior express written consent. Did you ever sign up, fill out a form, or click “I agree” authorizing calls from this company? If not, every call is a $500 violation—or $1,500 if the court finds it was willful.
• DNC Registry violation. If your number is registered and you’re receiving telemarketing calls, that’s a separate violation even without an autodialer.
• Failure to honor opt-out. Did you tell them to stop? Under the April 2025 FCC rule, they must comply within 10 business days. Every call after that is willful.
• No caller identification. TCPA regulations require telemarketers to identify themselves and the entity they represent and provide a callback number. Failure to do so is an additional violation.

Do the math: if a loan company has called you 20 times without consent, that’s potentially $10,000–$30,000 in statutory damages for your individual claim alone. The threat of class-wide exposure gives you significant settlement leverage.

Step 4: File and Litigate

You can bring a private action under the TCPA in federal or state court. You don’t need to show actual damages—statutory damages are automatic. Here’s how to maximize your position.

• File complaints with the FCC and FTC. Report violations at fcc.gov and ReportFraud.ftc.gov. These won’t litigate for you, but they create a public record of the caller’s behavior that strengthens your case.
• Consider both individual and class claims. If the same company is blasting robocalls to thousands of people, a class action multiplies the damages exponentially—and your leverage with it.
• Name the right defendants. Go after the company whose product is being marketed, not just the call center. The TCPA applies to the entity “on whose behalf” the call is made, which means the lender or lead buyer can be liable even if they hired a third-party dialer.
• Pursue FDCPA claims in parallel. If the robocalls relate to debt collection rather than marketing, you may have additional claims under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, which provides separate damages.

Your Robocall Action Plan

1. Register your number on the National Do Not Call Registry at donotcall.gov if you haven’t already.
2. Start logging every unwanted call—date, time, number, content. Screenshot your call log and save voicemails.
3. Answer the next robocall and extract the company name, website, email, or mailing address.
4. Tell the caller to stop. Say “stop calling me” clearly. Note the date. This starts the willful-violation clock.
5. Run reverse lookups on the calling numbers. Check the FCC’s Robocall Mitigation Database.
6. Keep your phone and phone bills. Do not switch devices or delete records during the limitations period.
7. File complaints with the FCC and FTC to create a public record.
8. Consult with a consumer protection attorney to evaluate your claims and file suit.

Key Legal Developments to Know

TCPA law is evolving rapidly. A few developments that strengthen your hand in 2025–2026:

• FCC consent revocation rule (effective April 2025). Consumers can now revoke consent by any reasonable means—”stop,” “quit,” “end,” “opt out,” “cancel,” or “unsubscribe.” Companies get 10 days, then every subsequent contact is willful.
• AI voice calls are covered. The FCC’s February 2024 Declaratory Ruling confirmed that AI-generated voices are “artificial or prerecorded” under the TCPA. Companies can’t dodge the law by using natural-sounding AI.
• STIR/SHAKEN is making callers traceable. The FCC’s caller ID authentication framework, mandated by the TRACED Act, makes it increasingly difficult for robocallers to hide behind spoofed numbers. While there’s no private right of action under STIR/SHAKEN, the data it generates is invaluable in TCPA litigation.
• Courts are setting standards independently. A 2025 Supreme Court decision shifted TCPA interpretation authority from the FCC to the courts, meaning judges now set their own standards—and many are ruling favorably for consumers.

If robocall harassment has contributed to financial stress or overwhelming debt, you don’t have to face it alone. Lakelaw’s bankruptcy attorneys have helped thousands of people find a fresh financial start. Contact us today for a free, confidential consultation.

How Fraudsters Exploit Lawyers, Trust Accounts, and the Prestige of Your License

By David P. Leibowitz

You went to law school to help people, not to become a money mule. But to a new breed of international fraudster, your law license, your trust account, and your professional instinct to help a client in need make you the perfect target.

These scams aren’t crude. They’re engineered to exploit the specific mechanics of legal practice—IOLTA accounts, escrow obligations, the duty to act on a client’s behalf, and the time pressure of transactions. The FBI has issued repeated warnings. State bars across the country post new alerts nearly every month. Yet lawyers keep falling for these schemes, sometimes to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars, because the scams are designed to look exactly like the legitimate work lawyers do every day.

If you handle collections, real estate closings, business transactions, or any matter that involves receiving and disbursing funds, you need to read this.

The Fake Collection Client

This is the most widespread scam targeting lawyers, and the FBI has flagged it repeatedly. Here’s how it works: you receive an email—often from someone overseas—asking whether you handle debt collection in your state. The story is always plausible. A foreign company is owed money by a U.S.-based debtor. They need local counsel to send a demand letter and collect the funds.

You agree. You send the demand letter. And then something remarkable happens: the debtor agrees to pay immediately—in full, no negotiation, no pushback. A cashier’s check arrives at your office, often drawn on a Canadian bank or another institution that’s difficult to verify quickly. You deposit it into your IOLTA account. Your “client” asks you to wire the proceeds—minus your fee—to an overseas account.

Days later, your bank notifies you that the check was counterfeit. The funds are clawed back. But the wire you sent is gone. And because it came out of your trust account, you are personally liable for every dollar.

Red Flags

• Unsolicited contact from an overseas “client” you’ve never met, often with a vague or generic email address.
• The debtor capitulates immediately with no negotiation—the fastest, easiest collection of your career.
• Payment arrives by cashier’s check, often from a Canadian or foreign bank, sometimes for more than the alleged debt.
• The client pressures you to wire funds quickly, before the check has fully cleared—often citing an “urgent business need.”
• Communication is exclusively by email. The client resists phone calls, video conferences, or any verification of identity.

How to Protect Yourself

• Never disburse funds until a check has fully cleared. Cashier’s checks can take weeks to be returned as counterfeit. Your bank’s “available balance” is not confirmation that funds are good.
• Verify the client independently. Search the company name, check business registries, and insist on a video call before accepting the engagement.
• Be suspicious of any collection where the debtor pays without resistance. In what universe does a debtor immediately agree to pay a demand letter in full, from a lawyer they’ve never heard of?
• Call the issuing bank directly to verify the cashier’s check—using a number you find independently, not one printed on the check itself.

The Real Estate Wire Intercept

Business email compromise has become the most financially devastating form of cybercrime targeting the legal profession. The FBI’s 2024 Internet Crime Report documented over 21,000 BEC complaints with losses exceeding $2.7 billion—and real estate transactions are among the most frequently targeted.

Here’s the scenario: you’re handling a closing. Somewhere in the email chain, a hacker has been quietly monitoring the thread—often for weeks. At the critical moment, just before closing, someone in the transaction receives an email that appears to come from you, from the title company, or from the lender. It contains “updated” wire instructions. The email uses the right logos, the right tone, and references the correct property and transaction details. The only thing different is the account number—which now routes to a fraudster’s account.

Red Flags

• Last-minute changes to wiring instructions sent via email, especially close to the closing date.
• Subtle changes to email addresses—a single character swap, a different domain extension, or a display name that doesn’t match the actual address.
• Unusual urgency in the request: “This needs to go out today” or “time is of the essence.”
• The email thread feels slightly off—different formatting, a different signature block, or a tone that doesn’t match the sender’s normal style.

How to Protect Yourself

• Establish a firm policy: wiring instructions never change by email. Communicate this to all parties at the outset of every transaction.
• Verify all wiring instructions by phone using a known number—never a number from the email itself.
• Enable multi-factor authentication on all firm email accounts. A compromised inbox is the most common entry point for these attacks.
• Train every person in your office who touches financial transactions. Paralegals, assistants, and bookkeepers are often the ones who actually initiate wires.

Escrow and Trust Account Abuse

Your IOLTA account is a laundromat waiting to happen—at least, that’s how criminals see it. Money that passes through a lawyer’s trust account acquires a veneer of legitimacy. Sophisticated fraud rings know this, and they’re engineering scenarios designed to push funds through your escrow in ways that make you an unwitting participant in money laundering.

Common setups include: an overseas “client” asks you to hold funds in escrow pending a business transaction that never quite materializes, or a new client asks you to receive a wire, hold it briefly, and forward it to a third party minus your fee. The transaction may be framed as an equipment sale, a consulting agreement, or a settlement of a foreign dispute. The funds are real—but they’re stolen. And when law enforcement traces the money, the trail leads to your trust account.

Red Flags

• A client asks you to receive and forward funds with no substantive legal work beyond holding money.
• The transaction structure doesn’t make legal sense. Why does an equipment sale between two foreign parties need a U.S. lawyer to hold escrow?
• Multiple parties you can’t independently verify—the “buyer,” “seller,” and “client” may all be the same person or organization.
• The client is indifferent to your fee or offers an unusually generous retainer for minimal work.

How to Protect Yourself

• Never let your trust account be used as a payment pass-through. If the primary purpose of your engagement is to receive and forward funds rather than provide legal services, walk away.
• Know your client. Conduct due diligence that goes beyond a signed engagement letter. Verify corporate registrations, confirm identities, and understand the economic substance of the transaction.
• Understand your obligations under anti-money laundering frameworks. While the U.S. hasn’t adopted the ABA’s recommended “gatekeeper” rules in full, the ethical and criminal exposure is real.
• Consult your state bar’s ethics hotline if a potential engagement feels unusual. Most bars are happy to help you spot a scam before it becomes a disciplinary matter.

The Overpayment Scam

A variation on the collection scam, but worth its own section because it’s devastatingly effective. A new client retains you for a straightforward matter—a contract dispute, a personal injury settlement, a family law collection. A check arrives, but it’s for more than the agreed amount. The client apologizes for the “error” and asks you to deposit the check, keep your fee, and wire the overage back.

The check is fraudulent. The “error” was the whole point. And you’ve just wired clean money from your trust account to a criminal.

How to Protect Yourself

• Any overpayment followed by a request to return the excess is a scam. Full stop. Legitimate clients do not accidentally overpay and then urgently need the difference wired to a third-party account.
• Return overpayments by the same method they arrived. If a check came in, send a check back to the same account. Never wire a refund from a check deposit.
• Wait for final clearance—not “available funds.” Banks make funds “available” long before a check has truly cleared. Cashier’s checks drawn on foreign banks can take weeks to bounce back.

AI-Powered Impersonation

Artificial intelligence has made these scams dramatically more convincing. Fraudsters now use AI to generate flawless legal correspondence, clone the voices of known contacts, and create deepfake video. A scammer posing as a foreign client can now produce emails that read like they were written by a sophisticated business professional—because they were written by an AI trained on corporate communications.

More alarmingly, the FBI has warned of criminal operations that impersonate existing law firms and real attorneys, complete with cloned websites and fabricated bar credentials, to victimize people who’ve already been scammed once. Your name and your firm’s reputation can be weaponized without your knowledge.

How to Protect Yourself

• Monitor your firm’s online presence. Periodically search for your name, your firm name, and your bar number to check for impersonation websites or fraudulent use of your credentials.
• Don’t rely on the quality of written communications as a trust signal. AI has eliminated grammatical errors as a reliable red flag. A perfectly written email no longer means a legitimate sender.
• Verify voice and video. If a client or counterparty calls with an urgent financial request, hang up and call back at a known number. AI voice cloning is now available to anyone.

The Lawyer’s Fraud Prevention Checklist

Eight Rules to Protect Your Practice

1. Never disburse trust funds until checks have irrevocably cleared. “Available” doesn’t mean “good.”
2. Verify every new client’s identity independently—especially those who contact you unsolicited from overseas.
3. Insist on live communication. Clients who refuse phone or video calls are a serious red flag.
4. Never wire funds to a third party you haven’t independently confirmed.
5. Treat wiring instruction changes as hostile until verified by phone.
6. If a collection or transaction seems too easy, it’s probably a trap.
7. Refuse to let your trust account be used as a pass-through.
8. Document your due diligence. If you’re ever investigated, your file should show what you checked and when.

If You Suspect You’ve Been Targeted

Speed matters. If you’ve deposited a suspicious check or wired funds based on a potentially fraudulent instruction, act immediately.

• Contact your bank’s fraud department and request an immediate recall of any outgoing wires. Recovery rates drop sharply after the first 24 hours.
• Notify your state bar. Most bars have dedicated scam reporting channels and will not treat your report as a disciplinary matter.
• File a report with the FBI’s IC3 at ic3.gov and with the FTC at ReportFraud.ftc.gov.
• Notify your malpractice carrier immediately. Prompt reporting is typically a condition of coverage.
• Preserve all communications—emails, texts, checks, wire confirmations. These are evidence.
• Alert colleagues in your local bar. Scammers often work geographic regions systematically. If they targeted you, they’re targeting other lawyers in your area.

There is no shame in being targeted. These are professional criminals running industrial-scale operations. The shame would be in not warning your colleagues. Share this guide with every lawyer you know.

If fraud has left you or your clients facing overwhelming debt, you don’t have to face it alone. Lakelaw’s bankruptcy attorneys have helped thousands of people find a fresh financial start. Contact us today for a free, confidential consultation.