Unsolicited Text Marketing Isn't a Growth Hack. It's a TCPA Lawsuit.
David Selva · · 2 min read
SMS Marketing, Compliance, TCPA
Texting a purchased list without consent isn't an aggressive growth tactic — it's a federal violation with statutory damages of up to $1,500 per text, and a single bad list can turn into hundreds of them.
One violation of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act carries statutory damages of $500, or up to $1,500 if a court finds it was willful. A single promotional blast to a purchased list of four hundred numbers isn't one violation. Under that law, it's four hundred of them, and I've watched owners find this out only after a demand letter arrived.
Where the shortcut comes from
Someone gets a spreadsheet of phone numbers — scraped, purchased, or pulled from an old customer list that never explicitly agreed to marketing texts — and sends a promotional blast because it's cheap, fast, and email open rates have been sliding for years. The tactic isn't new. What's changed is how organized the enforcement side has become at finding these blasts and turning them into claims.
What actual consent looks like
Real consent is a specific, documented opt-in for marketing messages — a checked box on a form, a reply to a keyword, a signature on an intake sheet — that names texting specifically, not a number collected for scheduling that quietly gets reused for promotions later. If you can't point to the exact moment someone agreed to receive a marketing text, you don't have consent. You have a phone number.
Why the compliant version still works
Text-based follow-up is genuinely effective when it's built on real consent — a missed-call text-back to someone who just called you, an appointment reminder to someone who just booked, a review request to someone who just finished a job. Every one of those has an obvious, defensible reason the customer expected a text. That's the entire difference between a tool that converts and a liability with a good open rate.
Check where your list actually came from
Before your next SMS campaign goes out, trace exactly where every number on that list came from and whether marketing texts were part of what anyone agreed to. If you can't answer that clearly, the list is a liability wearing a marketing plan's clothes.