There are some debt collectors that have started using social media sites, such as Facebook, to contact debtors about their debts even when they have other means of contacting the debtor.

The Telephone Consumer Protection Act (“TCPA”) requires telemarketers to comply with all do-not-call requests a consumer makes directly to the telemarketer during a solicitation call. The TCPA also requires some telemarketers to comply with the National Do-Not-Call Registry which was implemented in 2003.

The Federal Communications Commission (“FCC”) has amended the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (“TCPA”) regulations, many of which go into effect this year. These amendments impose additional opt-out requirements and consent requirements for prerecorded or autodialed telemarketing calls.

In a recent unpublished Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals opinion, the decision of a district court to grant summary judgment in favor of a debt collector was upheld. In Worsham v. Account Receivable Management, Inc., the brother-in-law of a debtor sued the debt collector because of repeated prerecorded calls to him in an attempt to locate the debtor.