There was that great line in Princess Bride “You have six fingers on your right hand… someone was looking for you.” Really tremendous.
We have a TCPA version of that happening right now.
Use (888) 350-6605?
Someone was looking for you.
And much like Inigo, I think they’re going to find you. Especially if the court has anything to say about it.
In Fabrikant v. John Doe 2026 WL 1862262 (D. Ne. June 29 2026) the Plaintiff filed suit against an unknown company that allgeledy spam texted thosands of consumers without consent.
The Plaintiff filed a motion for early discovery designed to learn the true identity of the spammer since he had very little to go on. All he knows is that the texts came from (888) 350-6605 (a number provided by Twilio allegedly) and operated the website insuranceenterpriseusa.com (hosted by Squarespace.)
The Plaintiff asked the court to subpoena Twilio, Squarespace and other third-parties that might have information regarding the entity behind the number. The Court granted the motion and allowed the discovery to move forward.
Here’s the analysis:
Plaintiff has brought this action under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, 47 U.S.C. § 227 (“TCPA”), against the
unidentified operator of the health-insurance telemarketing enterprise that does business as “Insurance Enterprise USA,” through
the website insuranceenterpriseusa.com and the toll-free telephone number (888) 350-6605. Plaintiff alleges the defendant sent
unsolicited marketing text messages to Plaintiff’s cellphone and to thousands of other consumers. Plaintiff alleges the defendant
has deliberately concealed its legal identity by routing its telemarketing through a toll-free number whose subscriber records
are held by a third-party and by operating its website through a privacy-shielded domain registration that discloses no registered
company name or address. (Filing No. 1 at p. 2).
Plaintiff now moves the Court for leave to begin discovery prior to satisfying the meet and confer requirement of Federal Rule
of Civil Procedure 26(f), seeking leave serve three subpoenas to produce documents in a civil action without notice to opposing
parties as required by Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 45(a)(4). In order to uncover the defendant’s identity, Plaintiff requests
leave to serve subpoenas on Twilio Inc., which provides the toll-free number; Squarespace Domains II LLC, the domain’s
registrar; and Google LLC, which provides the Google Workspace email service for the domain. (Filing No. 401 at p. 2). The
proposed subpoenas generally seek production of documents to identify the account holder/subscriber/customer of the accounts,
the date such accounts were created, and other related information to ascertain the identity of the person(s) who established and
controlled the accounts of the defendants identified in the complaint. (Filing No. 4-3 at pp. 1-7).
The Court finds that Plaintiff has shown good cause to conduct the limited discovery requested in his motion. See Digital Sin,
Inc. v. Does 1-176, 279 F.R.D. 239 (S.D. N.Y. 2012) (finding expedited discovery appropriate to identify John Doe defendants).
Because Plaintiff does not know the identity of the John Doe Defendants, Plaintiff cannot give notice to opposing parties prior
to issuance of the subpoena as required by Rule 45. See Fed. R. Civ. P. 45(a)(4) (requiring notice to other parties before service
of a subpoena). However, at this point, there is no indication that Plaintiff has “any reasonable alternative to … subpoenas to
obtain the [identity]” of the John Doe Defendants. Digital Sin, 279 F.R.D. at 241-42. Accordingly,
IT IS ORDERED: Plaintiff’s Motion for Leave to Conduct Early Discovery (Filing No. 4) is granted. Plaintiff may serve the
subpoenas attached as Exhibit A to his motion upon Twilio Inc., Squarespace Domains II LLC, and Google LLC.
Notably the case was filed less than a week ago and the Court has already allowed swift early discovery– so you can see where this is likely headed.
Will keep an eye on it.
Unrelated, this Vivek Shah catastrophe is next level. We have been talking to 6 companies a day that received frivolous Vivek CIPA pen register demands. He has an overdeveloped sense of vengeance. It’s going to get him into trouble someday.
(Thank you. Thank you.)
Chat soon.