Do Not Call Compliance Issues

At Next Wave, we take legal compliance seriously and we do what we can to help our clients comply with the Do Not Call regulations.

Please be aware however, that compliance with the National Do-Not-Call Registry rules (64 Fed. Reg. 66124-66126) is the direct responsibility of the telemarketer or seller of the goods or service. Under the law therefore, your business as the seller of the goods or services is directly responsible to comply with the law and Next Wave does not assume the burden as a service provider and we cannot guarantee your company will not receive or be held accountable for such claims after you receive a lead from us. We do however employ significant measures prior to sending a lead to you to assist you in avoiding liability under the DNC and other privacy laws. These measures include manual and electronic data verification measures but do not include us scrubbing the leads for you against any applicable state or federal DNC lists.

By their very nature, a written (Internet) inquiry regarding goods or services exempts the response to that inquiry from a violation of the DNC laws as the customer has granted permission to call and established a business relationship. This relationship is, under the DNC “Safe Harbor” rules valid for 90 days. To ensure compliance with these rules, each lead received by us is subject to a quality control process that includes requiring our vendors to record the date, time and computer IP address to evidence when and on what system the consumer submitted the request. We further employ Oracle database for scrubbing contact phone number and e-mail address against our buyer's internal database or internal do not call lists upon request. Since the granting of permission to be contacted by telephone is a carved out exception to liability under the DNC rules, we do not pre-scrub leads of consumers as we receive them against the National Do-Not-Call list who have filled out an online expression of interest in the last 90 days as this would eliminate otherwise exempted, good leads in which the customer has requested to be contacted. If requested, we will do our best to get you date, time stamp, and IP address when available from our vendors in a timely manner if needed to assist you in responding to a complaint.

Despite best efforts however challenges may still arise. Often times we find a consumer claiming a “DNC violation” has simply forgotten about the permissive contact request or did not realize a spouse or family member made such a request. Another common situation is for consumers to list their home phone number as their business phone. Since business phone numbers are exempt from the DNC rule, consumers often do not realize they inadvertently removed themselves from protection under the law by doing so. Regardless of the actual circumstances, our policy is to be very responsive to the claim and assist our Broker clients in resolving the customer’s concerns. When aged Internet mortgage leads we sell are within the 90 days allowed by safe harbor guidelines, we typically do not accept a return of a lead simply because the consumer appears on a DNC registry. If the lead falls outside of safe harbor guidelines then we require that anybody buying leads from us scrub the leads against all applicable state and federal DNC lists prior to soliciting the consumers by phone and then we do or do not accept returns for leads found to be on any DNC lists by our lender or mortgage broker buyers depending on price being paid to us per lead. Just to play it safe, some of our buyers scrub leads against the DNC list even if the consumers did fill out an online expression of interest within the last 90 days. Because of our understanding and robust compliance procedures with the DNC Registry, we have never been subject to any fines for DNC related offenses.

Even with all of these measures, you, the calling broker are responsible to comply with the DNC rules. Generally it is your responsibility to have a written DNC policy in place and available for delivery to a consumer who asks for it. You must regularly train your staff about the DNC rules and the company policy. You must have an enabled Caller ID with your phone number and if possible your company name so consumers with caller Id can identify the call. If the consumer demands not to be called again, you must place them on an internal DNC list that will prevent them from being called again. We also recommend that you subscribe to the National and State DNC registry so you may at your option check any prospect phone number for DNC registration should you choose to. If the customer makes a demand not to be called at any time, it supercedes any prior authorization or permission given and the safe harbor exemption no longer applies. In our experience it is a broker’s failure to implement such policies and procedures that causes liability to be imposed. With such policies and procedures it is unlikely the FTC or a private consumer complaint will result in a fine based upon a single initial contact.

This was designed to help you in understanding our dedication to promoting consumer privacy but in no way is to be construed as legal advice. Please work with your independent counsel to implement a compliance plan for your business if you are unsure about your exposure to liability. We work very hard to update our systems to ensure we employ top-of-the-industry standards to prevent unwanted contacts by our broker clients to consumers. The process is ongoing and will only improve over time. We are proud of our track record in promoting compliance with all current privacy laws and to date have not had any formal complaints or lawsuits from law enforcement agencies or consumers levied against us.

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Next Wave Marketing Strategies
Office Phone: 949-861-3122
Mobile Phone: 949-280-2548
Fax: 949-861-3122
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