Cold outreach rules every investor should know about
This is an orientation, not legal advice, and it is not a substitute for asking a lawyer about your own operation. The rules here carry real financial consequences and they change.
Why this is not a formality
Statutory damages for unsolicited contact are set per contact, not per campaign, and there is an established plaintiff bar that works this area professionally. The exposure from a careless list is not theoretical.
There are people who specifically cultivate being contacted in order to sue. Reputable list vendors offer screening for them, and it should be switched on before you export anything.
Things worth knowing before you start
Do-not-call registration and litigation risk are different things and get handled differently. Ask specifically about both.
Consent, and what counts as it, is the centre of most disputes. A prior business relationship is not a blanket permission.
Records matter. If you ever have to demonstrate what you sent, to whom and when, you will want it logged rather than reconstructed.
Opt-outs have to be honoured across every channel and every list, permanently. Honouring a stop on one list and calling from another is exactly the pattern that gets noticed.
Where a bought lead sits
A seller who has replied to a message about his or her property, in a live conversation, is a materially different position from cold contact — but "different" is not a legal opinion and your own compliance is still yours.
If you are running outreach at any volume, the cost of an hour with a lawyer who knows this area is trivial next to a single claim.
Questions people ask
Is this legal advice?
No. It is an orientation so you know which questions to take to a lawyer. Anyone offering you a definitive answer on a web page — including us — should be treated with suspicion.
Do I need to scrub lists myself if I buy leads?
The outreach that produced the lead is ours. Anything you run on your own data is your responsibility, and litigator screening should be part of it every time.
Related
Every lead on Freedom Leads is a seller who already replied to a text. $5 each, sold once, to one buyer.