[author: Eric Troutman]
Honeypots.
Tens (hundreds?) of thousands of phone numbers owned by a single corporate subscriber.
They exist merely to monitor and track calling patterns. No one is using these phones. They are monitored autonomously for a host of reasons.
Most commonly companies like YouMail and Nomorobo will maintain vast honeypots to keep their app settings up to snuff, and also report perceived illegal activity to the ITG and FCC and other law enforcement agencies.
They are essentially the world’s biggest narcs– collecting data on calling practices and then turning companies over to the feds.
They do a lot of good work in bringing down bad guys, but they also net a number of good companies who are calling incorrect phone numbers.
And this brings me to the story of Melody Stoops.
You’ve heard me discuss her before.
She bought 80 cell phones. Sued Wells Fargo for calling her by mistake when it was trying to reach the previous owner of the phone.
I defended the case. Got it thrown out. You can’t manufacture your own harm.
Groundbreaking. World changing.
You remember all of that.
What you don’t remember– because I never told you– is that Nomorobo tried the same thing and lost on the very same grounds.
But instead of 80 cell phone numbers Nomorobo had about 10,000.
Well they’re back. And they’re going to try it again.
In a new TCPA suit filed in Federal Court in Connecticut Nomorobo just sued Synchrony Financial for 2,368 prerecorded calls made to Nomorobo’s honeypot numbers.
None of the calls were made with Nomorobo’s consent.
So IF Nomorobo has standing to sue, Synchrony will owe a cool $1MM to Nomorobo.
But that’s not all, of course.
Nomorobo has received BILLIONS of calls to its honeypot numbers I am certain. NONE of those calls are consented. And all of the calls made on a prerecorded basis are, might be sued upon.
If this theory holds water Nomorobo just became one of the most valuable companies in the world based on book value– the value of the asset of TCPA claims against callers (at $500.00 per illegal call) is likely in the trillions of dollars.
Just. Insane.
And as I mentioned, Nomorobo is not alone. YouMail has a vast honeypot. Many other companies do also.
This is so incredibly fascinating and important.
You can read the full complaint here: Honeypot Complaint
We will keep a very close eye on this.
In fact I will probably discuss with Mike on Monday. So you DEFINITELY do not want to miss out!
Chat soon.
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