NEW: TCPA Litigator Feature Added to Phone Validator APIs
TCPA litigator involves lawsuits under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA). As you probably know, TCPA was designed to protect consumers against unethical and unwanted telemarketing phone calls. By filing lawsuits, consumers can get direct compensation for the abuse of their phone numbers—which can cost businesses millions of dollars.
Phone validator APIs offer a wide range of information. Now, select Searchbug APIs indicate numbers involved in TCPA litigation since 2000. Wouldn’t you like to know?
Uses for Phone Validator API
Phone validation is a process of making sure that phone numbers are accurate and usable. For example, you can enter a phone number into a phone validator, and it will tell you whether or not the phone number is active. (Ever receive a fake phone number from someone who didn’t actually want you to contact them…?)
Now, if you have a whole list of phone numbers, like a database, you can upload the whole list to a bulk phone validator and get information at once for each number on that list. If you rely on customer data for your business, bulk phone validation is an easy way to save time and money.
It’s even more efficient, however, to use a phone validator API. This provides you with information on a phone number before it even enters your database. That way, you never risk wasting time and money using a fake, outdated, or inactive phone number.
There are different APIs that report different information on a phone number. The one you need depends on what information you’d like to have. Here are the many uses for a phone validator API:
Identify Phone Number
This API will tell you the original carrier and line type of each phone number. Line types can include landline, cell phone, or VoIP. This helps reduce fraud, form spam submissions, and TCPA lawsuits. You can process one phone number or up to 1,000 in one request.
LNP
Local number portability (LNP) indicates whether a number has been moved, or ported, to another carrier. For example, a customer can be assigned a phone number from one carrier and then switch to another phone company (maybe for better customer service, a better deal, better reception) that will allow that customer to retain his or her number even though it originated from a different carrier.
Without this LNP check, the standard API (above) will only indicate the original carrier and line type (a phone number could have been a landline originally but later ported to a cell phone). In this way, the advanced LNP API is more accurate because it indicates this change if it occurred.
DNC Check
The Advanced LNP + DNC API adds a Do-Not-Call (DNC) list check. This API reports the current carrier and line type using real-time LNP check with 99.9% accuracy. In addition, however, this service indicates whether a phone number is on the U.S. federal DNC list.
Numbers registered on the DNC list have requested to not be called by telemarketers. If you use phone numbers for lead generation, failure to comply with DNC requests could result in thousands of dollars in TCPA fines per number.
Caller ID
This service adds Caller ID (CNAM) name to the phone number report. CNAM (the first 15 characters associated with the billing party) is not regulated by the FCC or a central database. So since individual carriers can manage their databases how they like, many offer users the ability to personalize the CNAM. This service helps identify the identity of a number’s owner.
Line Status
Knowing whether a number is reachable or not can save you time and money by not calling inactive or disconnected phone numbers. This API uses sophisticated algorithms and multiple factors to indicate whether or not a number is reachable.
SMS Email
For cell phone numbers, phone validation can provide the address for sending text messages via email. The format of an SMS email address is the user’s mobile number and the carrier (2129994455@sms.mycricket.com). This is the direct carrier address to send text messages to the phone via email. If you have text-based permissions and want to save the cost of using a third party text message provider, using this SMS/MMS email address will deliver your emails as text messages.
TCPA Litigator
This service indicates whether a phone number has ever been involved in TCPA litigator since 2000. This can help protect yourself against frivolous lawsuits.
TCPA Litigator
The TCPA was designed to protect customers from unwanted telemarketing calls including pre-recorded and/or autodialed telephone calls, (SMS) text messages, and faxes. TCPA fines are enforced on a per violation basis. So at $500 to $1,500 per violation, fines and penalties add up fast. And the number of TCPA lawsuits keeps growing significantly with several thousand cases filed annually.
In 2019, the average cost of a TCPA settlement was $6,600,000, and there are consumers who initiate TCPA lawsuit schemes, one of whom filed as many as 45 suits. One TCPA settlement could be enough to bankrupt a small business.
The Telephone Robocall Abuse Criminal Enforcement and Deterrence (TRACED) Act has even increased the stringency of TCPA regulations in recent years. A single violation of the TRACED Act is $10,000 when TCPA is violated willfully. That in addition to the $16,000 fine for TCPA violation can result in a $26,000 penalty for one call. Furthermore, under the TRACED Act, the timeframe for the FCC to pursue violations is now three years as opposed to one.
Consumers can and will report businesses for misusing their information. To protect yourself, exercise TCPA compliance best practices and use phone validator APIs with the TCPA litigator feature.
How the TCPA Litigator Feature Works
To get access to APIs, you will need a prepaid Searchbug account. You can add $10 to your account to test it out and up to $1,000 when you’re ready to use it regularly. The cost of each API is based on either a query (information search) or a hit (information match). Make sure you know how the API you use charges because the cost is deducted from your prepaid account balance accordingly.
If you are using Searchbug APIs for the first time, the new TCPA litigator feature will work automatically on select APIs. If you are currently using Searchbug APIs and want to start taking advantage of the new TCPA litigator feature, you will want to take note of the new API codes:
- Adv+DNC = api_lnd2
- Reachable Number = api_atn3
- Complete = api_atx2
- DNC List = api_dnc2
That’s it! Now, you can get all of the phone number information you need at the point of entry.
Conclusion
Phone validator APIs can save you time and money by improving your phone data at the point of entry into your database. Make your data more meaningful by identifying the line type, carrier, and more for each number. There are a number of APIs to choose from, and if you don’t see what you need, Searchbug can create a custom API to suit your needs and solve your particular data problems.
We will say, at least, that TCPA violations are everyone’s problem. But there’s an API for that. Find out which numbers are safe to use, and follow TCPA compliance best practices to use them ethically. Litigator and settlements are time-consuming and expensive. Protect yourself, your business, and consumers by validating your phone data before using it. Create your free Searchbug account and try it today!
