Tatango, a text message software platform, has unveiled a new product that will scrub a company’s database and remove any phone numbers associated with professional plaintiffs who are likely to sue for violations of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act.
The product will search through lawsuits filed alleging violations of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, the Fair Credit Reporting Act, and the TCPA, and remove any phone numbers associated with individuals who have sued under those statutes. The objective of the product is to keep companies from being sued by individuals who are known to do so.
“Up until now, businesses have had no other option than to develop defensive strategies to deal with professional TCPA plaintiffs,” said Derek Johnson, Tatango’s chief executive, in a statement. “Now, with our TCPA Plaintiff Monitoring product, Tatango clients are able to implement an offensive strategy when dealing with these professional plaintiffs. This is a must-have for businesses looking to decrease their liability when sending text messages to customers.”
In its press release announcing the new product, Tatango says the best way a company can protect itself from professional TCPA plaintiffs is to “never send them text messages in the first place.”
More collection agencies are deploying text messages as a means of communicating with individuals. Text messages can be used to remind individuals that payments are due, to notify individuals with payment confirmations, among other reasons.