The FCC’s New Recycled Number Spotting Database is Live—Here’s How to Use It

Its odd to think I’ve been talking about this
for nearly three years.

On December 12, 2018
the FCC first announced the creation of the reassigned number database. The
results of years of advocacy by industry participants who advised the FCC they
were being held strictly liable under the TCPA for efforts to contact their
customers after phone numbers had changed hands without their knowledge, the
database helps to assure that good actors in the ecosystem can safely detect
phone numbers that may no longer be valid.

Here’s a little
background.

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The Problem

Over 30 million cell
phone numbers change hands each year. And the new recipients of those numbers
don’t want phone calls intended for the former owners of those phones. Until
November 1, 2021, however, there was no definitive way for businesses to know whether
their customers’ numbers had changed hands.

Moreover, the TCPA is
considered a strict liability statute by many courts. So if a caller attempted
to reach their customer on a cell phone number that had changed hands, they
could be sued for $500.00 per call—even though the business might have no idea
the number no longer belonged to their customer.

The Solution

A database that tracks
all cell phone reassignments in the United States. The FCC has required
carriers to provide updated information regarding cell phone numbers and their
ownership for nearly three years now. Owing to privacy concerns, however, the
database is extremely limited in terms of the data that is shared.

Containing only cell
phone number and reassignment dates, the database should prove extremely
effective at identifying reassigned numbers—but it will not assist callers
attempting to avoid wrong numbers, or attempting to confirm that the number
they have was properly provided by a consumer.

How it Works

A user of the
database—which has been in a beta test since July of this year—will submit two
pieces of information: a cell phone number and a “last good” date. The Database
Administrator will respond with either a “yes” or a “no.” The “yes” means that a
number has been reassigned since the last good date and cannot be called. A
“no” means that the number has not been reassigned and is presumptively ok to
call.

A “last good” date is
the last date that the caller is comfortable the phone number belonged to the
called party—generally an “RPC” (right party contact) date.

As I have been saying
for years now, therefore, it is critical that all callers who wish to take
advantage of the database—and that should be everybody—track last good dates
for their entire cell phone database.

The Safeharbor

For folks that make
use of the reassigned number database there is a very big upside: The FCC has
issued a safe harbor shielding such callers from liability in the event that
the database is inaccurate. So if a caller properly sets up a protocol for
scrubbing against the database, the caller should be completely protected
against TCPA liability calls to reassigned numbers— a very important protection
to have.

There are some
limitations here, however:

1.   The safeharbor only protects
callers against errors in the database –errors in identifying
data to transmit, errors in last good date identification, and errors in
operationalizing database results are all outside the scope of the safeharbor.
So if you mess up on implementing the database you will have done yourself more
harm than good;

2.   Again, the database
does not protect against all wrong number calls—it is not designed to detect
dissimilarities between the “called party” and the subscriber to a cell phone
service, for instance. So callers will need to remain on guard against wrong
number calls using other best practices—such as double form fills, multi-factor
authentication, vendor solutions, etc.

3.   Most importantly, the
safeharbor does not protect you if you do not use the database, obviously, and
businesses electing not to use the database may be more likely to be found to
have “willfully” violated the statute—although I don’t think that results
necessarily follows.

In any event, its a
big day TCPA.World. Be sure to take advantage of the database to the fullest
extent you can.

If you have questions,
we’re always here to help.

The database can be
found here: http://www.reassigned.us/