6 Potential Consequences of a Do Not Call List Violation

Disclaimer: PropStream does not offer legal advice. This article is for informational purposes only. Consult a legal professional before cold calling real estate prospects.

Every illegal call to a number on the Do Not Call (DNC) list could cost you up to $50,120. That’s why it’s important to understand what the DNC list is and how respecting it can not only protect you legally and financially but also boost your call campaign performance.

What Is a Do Not Call (DNC) List?

A Do Not Call (DNC) list is a registry of phone numbers whose owners have opted out of receiving telemarketing calls. This could be an internal list of people who’ve told you not to contact them or the federal DNC registry.

Consumers can register their phone numbers with the federal DNC registry to get fewer unwanted sales calls. However, having their number on the list doesn’t block calls. It only tells registered telemarketers not to call them.

How Does the Do Not Call Registry Work?

Businesses are required to check the federal DNC list at least every 31 days and avoid cold calling numbers on the list. However, if a consumer has recently done business with you or you’ve received written permission to call, you may still be able to call them.

Of course, if someone ever asks you to stop calling, you’re required to stop.

Other exceptions to the DNC prohibition are political calls, charitable calls, debt collection calls, purely informational calls, and surveys—so long as they don’t include a sales pitch.

What Counts as a DNC Violation?

Some potential violations include:

• Calling a number listed on the National DNC Registry
• Ignoring a direct request from a consumer to stop calling
• Repeated or excessive calls after a consumer opts out of calls
• Calling before 8 a.m. or after 9 p.m. in the call recipient’s local time
• Not maintaining your own internal DNC list
  

When in doubt, err on the side of caution. Never call a prospect you suspect is on a DNC list. Otherwise, the consequences could be significant.

6 Potential Consequences of a Do Not Call List Violation

When you call someone on a DNC list, several things could happen:

Financial Penalties

According to the official Federal Trade Commission (FTC) website, DNC list violators could be fined up to $50,120 per illegal call. That could be a major financial blow to your business, especially if you’ve made multiple call violations.

Legal Action and Lawsuits

On top of the fines, you could face other legal action, including a lawsuit, for violating the DNC list. This could take time and resources away from your regular business operations.

Damage to Business Reputation

A DNC violation could hurt your business reputation by showing potential customers and business partners that you’re willing to cut corners and break the law.

Phone Number Reputation Issues

When you repeatedly violate DNC rules, phone carriers and consumers may mark your phone number(s) as spam. Such spam labels hurt your number reputation, making it harder to reach contacts.

Pro Tip: Check your phone’s reputation with BatchDialer’s free Spam Checker.

Carrier Restrictions

Some phone carriers may restrict you from using their network altogether. After all, they don’t want to facilitate illegal activity, so kicking you off their network is a natural move.

Reduced Deliverability and Connection Rates

All of the above consequences ultimately make it harder to connect with prospects. Your answer rates and the ROI on your outbound call campaigns may plummet as a result.

Why Many Violations Happen And How to Avoid Them

So why do businesses end up violating DNC rules in the first place? Well, it’s often more innocent than you’d expect.

For example, you may be using outdated or unverified contact data, which could cause you to accidentally call someone on the DNC registry. Similarly, you may be forgetting to scrub lead lists against the DNC registry to ensure you avoid protected numbers.

Such oversights often result from a lack of robust internal call processes or from an over-reliance on call volume rather than carefully qualifying each prospect.

How PropStream Supports Smarter, More Compliant Outreach

Fortunately, there’s an easy way to avoid these oversights and potential DNC violations. It’s called PropStream.

PropStream has a built-in DNC scrubbing feature that appears when you skip trace prospects’ contact information.* This means every DNC number is flagged, so you know not to call it. The platform also lets you create your own internal DNC lists for leads who’ve requested not to be contacted.

Additionally, PropStream makes it easier to keep prospects organized. For instance, you can segment leads by potential selling motivations and their position in your sales funnel. Furthermore, you can store lead data, notes, and call activity in a central place, so you have more context before placing each call through built-in tools like Click-to-Dial and Dialer Campaigns.

Best Practices to Stay Compliant

To avoid DNC list violations, follow these best practices:

• Always scrub lists against the National DNC registry: Run your contact list through the federal DNC registry at least every 31 days to filter out protected numbers.

• Maintain an internal Do Not Call list: Create a company-wide list of prospects who’ve requested not to be contacted, and cross-reference it before dialing.

• Track opt-outs and respect them: Document every request to stop calling and remove that number from your dialing queue immediately.

• Limit call frequency and avoid repeated attempts: Space out your call attempts and stop after a reasonable number of failed dials to avoid triggering spam complaints.

• Call during appropriate hours (8 a.m. to 9 p.m.): Respect the legally mandated calling window in the prospect’s local time zone.

• Focus on high-quality leads: Prioritize calling prospects with genuine interest or a prior business relationship over high-volume, low-quality lead lists.

The Bigger Picture: Compliance as a Competitive Advantage

Ultimately, putting compliance first will put your business ahead in the long run. It builds trust with prospects, improves answer rates, protects your ability to scale outreach, and makes your business more credible.

In short, don’t think of compliance as a necessary evil. Instead, think of it as a competitive advantage. You’ll stand out from non-compliant competitors that much more.

Plus, DNC compliance doesn’t have to be hard. Use PropStream to flag DNC numbers, build compliant lead lists, and connect with property owners more effectively.

*PropStream engages an independent third-party to perform skip tracing.