Digging Deeper: Robocall Index CEOs Join Unprecedented Podcast and Debunk Narrative that Legitimate Businesses Are Behind Bad Robocall Epidemic

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“You have to dig deeper.”

Those are YouMail CEO Alex Quilici’s words explaining why the superficial application of his company’s Robocall Index data is more than just a little misleading.

The Robocall Index is the most cited robocall metric in the nation. Here’s a short list of recent press mentions (in no particular order):

Most importantly for our purposes, however, the Index is cited exclusively by the National Consumer Law Center to support a narrative being peddled in the halls of Congress that legitimate American businesses are to blame for the scourge of robocalls in this nation.

Why does that matter? Because the NCLC wants Congress to broaden the TCPA and enhance the private right of action against these businesses–creating even more abusive litigation to the detriment of anyone who isn’t a “consumer right’s” attorney.

We think that’s a bad thing, and we’re trying to show everyone how bad data–or at least a superficial understanding of otherwise fine data– is being used to (unintentionally?) mislead law and policy makers in this space.

Indeed, according to the NCLC’s testimony to Congress, 19 of the top 20 robocallers in the country are debt collectors. Their source? You Mail’s Robocall Index.

But as You Mail’s CEO tells the SPB’s Unprecedented podcast it is important to be precise with your definitions. The Robocall Radar only tracks high volume calling patterns–it does not purport to know how calls are placed, whether the calls are unwanted or wanted, lawful or unlawful, consented to or unconsented to.

Quilici

You Mail CEO, Alex Quilici

So when the NCLC says creditors and debt collectors are the worst robocallers in the country it does so by citing to data that includes things like low balance reminders, ATM withdrawal confirmations and fraud alerts. Huh?

Luckily, a second robocall index exists–one that seeks to track unwanted calls. That index is called the Robocall Radar and is published by a company called Hiya. And according to that index, only 2% of unwanted calls are debt collection calls. See for yourself:

RobocallRadar.jpeg

Recognizing that only 2% of unwanted calls are coming from debt collectors, it seems absurd that NCLC would simply lob the Robocall Index at Congress and cast legitimate services and creditors as the villainous robocallers tying up everyone’s phone lines. That is just not the case and–frankly–these misleading arguments make it far more difficult to find a solution to the real problem.

Indeed, false narratives about the size, scope and direction of the robocall epidemic mask the real problem, making it difficult to detect and solve.

To get to the bottom of all of this– and to compare and contrast the methodologies of the two top robocall trackers in the world in the hopes of uncovering truth– we invited Alex Algard–CEO of Hiya–to join the Unprecedented podcast along with Alex Quilici. Guess what–he accepted!

So, in a remarkable first-of-its-kind exchange, the CEOs of the two most oft-cited robocall tracking indexes in the nation got together with the Czar and hashed out what a robocall really is, how tracking consumer behavior can help us better understand the scale and appropriate response tot he robocall epidemic, and how advances in technology and sophisticated algorithms are being leveraged in the private sector to bring an end to this catastrophic robocall rise.

Before we get to that incredible dialog, the SPB TCPA defense team breaks down all of the key TCPA developments for the week, including a big recent arbitration win, a massive TCPA certification decision that is truly groundbreaking, and the latest TCPA ATDS ruling finding that dialing from a list of numbers is sufficient to state a claim.

If you care about the pursuit of robocall truth and quality fact-checking of advocacy before Congress on critical policy issues, you absolutely cannot miss this episode of the Unprecedented podcast. Available here. 

Here to serve. Enjoy!

 

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Published by Eric J. Troutman

The Czar of TCPAWorld Eric Troutman is one of the country’s prominent class action defense lawyers and is nationally recognized in Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) litigation and compliance. He has served as lead defense counsel in more than 70 national TCPA class actions and has litigated nearly a thousand individual TCPA cases in his role as national strategic litigation counsel for major banks and finance companies. He also helps industry participants build TCPA-compliant processes, policies, and systems. Eric has built a national litigation practice based upon deep experience, rigorous analysis and extraordinary responsiveness. Eric and his team feel equally at home litigating multibillion dollar telecommunications class actions in federal court as they do developing and executing national litigation strategies for institutions facing an onslaught of individual TCPA matters. They thrive in each of these roles – delivering consistently excellent results – while never losing sight of the client experience. While many firms now tout TCPA expertise, Eric has been there from the beginning. He built one of the country’s first TCPA-only defense teams and began serving as national TCPA counsel for his clients nearly a decade ago. This perspective allows him to swiftly develop the right litigation strategies for dealing with recurring problems, without wasting time on tactics that are bound to fail. Eric’s rich historical perspective and encyclopedic knowledge of the TCPA landscape also make him an invaluable resource to institutional compliance teams struggling to comply with the shifting regulatory landscape. No task is too small – or too big. Indeed, Eric and his team have helped build TCPA-compliant systems and processes for some of the largest and most complex corporate entities in the country. He commonly works with in-house compliance counsel to build and implement enterprise and business-line specific TCPA solutions, performs TCPA audits and drafts and reviews proposed TCPA policies and procedures. He and his team also have the technical expertise necessary to assist call centers seeking to develop TCPA-resistant call path architecture or to modify existing telephony and software integration to better insulate from potential TCPA exposure. Eric has built a reputation for thought leadership. An avid blogger and speaker, he has been at the forefront of the industry’s effort to push for clarity and a return to sanity for the TCPA for years. He was selected to advocate for the financial services industry on important TCPA issues before the Federal Communications Commission and co-authored the nation’s only comprehensive practice guide on TCPA defense. In his spare time, Eric leads defense teams representing banks and other financial services companies in consumer finance litigation matters. He has experience representing clients in UCC, TILA, RESPA FCRA, CCRA, CLRA, FDCPA, RFDCPA and FCCPA claims, as well as in fraud and bank operations issues.

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