Outbound calling glossary

An autodialer, or automatic telephone dialing system (ATDS), is the TCPA's term for equipment that can store or produce numbers using a random or sequential number generator and dial them. Autodialed calls to mobile phones, and to certain other lines such as emergency and hospital lines, need the called party's prior express consent, and autodialed telemarketing calls to those numbers need prior express written consent.

The TCPA, or Telephone Consumer Protection Act of 1991, is the US federal law that restricts telemarketing calls, autodialed calls, prerecorded or artificial-voice calls and texts. The FCC writes and enforces the rules under it, and consumers can sue for $500 to $1,500 per violating call.

Prior express written consent is the strongest form of consent under the TCPA: a signed written agreement, electronic signatures included, in which a person authorizes a specific seller to call or text their number with marketing using an autodialer or an artificial or prerecorded voice. It is required for telemarketing calls of that kind to mobile numbers and for prerecorded telemarketing calls to landlines.

A DNC (Do Not Call) list is a list of phone numbers that must not receive telemarketing calls. The best known is the FTC's National Do Not Call Registry; every telemarketer must also keep its own internal list of people who asked it to stop calling.

The 7-in-7 rule is the call frequency limit in Regulation F, the CFPB's rule implementing the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act. A debt collector is presumed to violate the law if it calls a person about a particular debt more than seven times within seven consecutive days, or within seven days after having a phone conversation with them about that debt.

Quiet hours are the times of day when telemarketing and collection calls are not allowed. Federally, telephone solicitations are barred before 8am and after 9pm in the called person's local time, and some states set narrower windows or ban calls on Sundays and holidays.

STIR/SHAKEN is the set of caller ID authentication standards US phone carriers use to digitally sign calls and confirm the calling number has not been spoofed. The FCC required it on carriers' IP networks under the TRACED Act, with the largest carriers starting in June 2021.

Caller ID reputation is the score that carriers and their call analytics partners assign to a phone number based on how it is used. A low score leads to warning labels such as "Spam Likely" on the recipient's screen, or to the call being blocked.

"Spam Likely" is a warning shown on a recipient's phone when their carrier's call analytics flag the incoming number as probable spam. T-Mobile shows "Scam Likely", and other carriers and apps use similar wording.