CZAR SAVES THE WORLD (AGAIN): Nomorobo’s Massive Honeypot TCPA Litigation Plan Foiled By 2016 Ruling– And It All Comes Back to the Czar

Call center operators can sleep a little bit better tonight after a court holds Nomorobo–operator of one of the world’s largest honeypots– cannot bring suit under the TCPA for receipt of unsolicited calls. And, per usual, it all comes back to the Czar’s hard work.

In Telephone Science Cop. v. Synchrony Financial 2026 WL 867602 (D. Conn. March 30, 2026) Nomorobo sued Synchrony claiming it had made thousands of illegal prerecorded calls to numbers assigned to one of Nomorobo’s honeypots.

A honeypot is a group of phone numbers owned by a business for the purpose of monitoring telecom communications. Companies like Nomorobo traditionally use such honeypots to determine which calls to block or label for users of its anti-robocall applications.

Nomorobo’s honeypot includes nearly 300,000 phone numbers– numbers that are not publicly available and are never handed out by Nomorobo. That means every call made by Synchony to one of the honeypot numbers was a “wrong” number dial made without consent.

The TCPA, of course, prevents robocalls to cellular numbers without consent. And since Nomorobo does not give consent to call its vast array of honeypot numbers every single robocall made by Synchony (or anyone else!) to any of these numbers technically violates the TCPA.

While liability is seemingly clear cut in such cases the issue remains– does Nomorobo have standing to sue under the TCPA for such violations? If so, Synchony faces seven figure liability– and the rest of the watching TCPAWorld faces untold exposure to Nomorobo, which would suddenly find itself one of the most valuable companies in the world.

The TCPA affords a private right of action to persons who must endure unsolicited robocalls to their cellular phones. But–thanks to the Czar’s hard work back in 2015– the courts recognize an exception where the called party is not within the “zone of interest” protected by the statute.

The “zone of interest” test was most famously applied in Stoops v. Wells Fargo where a Czar-lead team representing Wells Fargo convinced the court to throw out a TCPA case brought by a woman who had bought over 80 cell phones for the express purpose of filing TCPA lawsuits. The Court concluded Congress had not intended the TCPA to protect the interests of individuals who were simply buying phones to set up lawsuits.

Building on that ruling, a different court had held Nomorobo lacked standing when it brought a similar honeypot claim back in 2016. In the 2016 suit the court hand concluded Nomorobo was simply not within the “zone of interest” protected by the statute since the honeypot numbers were used to monitor telecom trends and not to communicate the way a regular consumer would use a phone number.

In their new suit Nomorobo alleged things had changed since 2016– noting the high cost of maintaining the honeypots and products that did not rely on the honeypot data. But the Court in Tel. Sci. Cotp., was unimpressed.

Determining that the doctrine of collateral estoppel applied throughout the ages the court determined the ruling back in 2016 still barred Nomorobo’s suit. Nothing had changed legally or factually that would alter the previous determination. If Nomorobo lacked standing in 2016 it still lacks standing today.

This is a MAJOR ruling because if Nomorobo had standing to pursue TCPA claims based on its massive stockpile of unlisted phone numbers virtually every call center in America might have cause for concern. Yet Nomorobo has just a small percentage of the honeypot numbers out there– YouMail, Amazon and Caller ID Reputation all have vast honeypots as well. A win by Nomorobo might have set off a vast TCPA bonanza knocking the entire call center space into a tailspin.

Still, nothing about the ruling in Tel. Sci. Corp. prevents othr companies from trying to enforce the TCPA on calls to their honeypots– the collateral estoppel ruling only applies to Nomorobo itself. So we may not have seen the last of this argument.

But for everyone impacted by this ruling– and that is pretty much everyone who makes calls at scale– just remember you evaded a massive new potential liability exposure thanks (once again) to the handiwork of the Czar. Had I not created the critical law animating this ruling way back in 2015 we might be living in a very different 2026.

As always, you’re welcome.

If you want to learn about the major doctrines that will guide TCPA litigation through to 2036 you will definitely want to attend Law Conference of Champions IV, May 4-6, 2026. TODAY (MARCH 31, 2026) IS THE LAST DAY TO GET TICKETS BEFORE PRICES JUMP! 

19 speakers from some of the best brands in America–Progressive, Wealthfront, Block to name a few–and a telecom panel including the CEO of Telnyx and YouMail! And its all hosted by David Stodolak!

Plus TOMORROW we announce the keynote. Be ready!

Love you all. Chat soon.