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What is ringless voicemail?
Ringless voicemail (RVM) is a calling method whereby a prerecorded message is placed directly into a voicemail inbox without normally making the target phone number ring or display a missed call. Recipients are also generally not billed for the delivery of the ringless message.
What are the risks?
A solid body of court opinion has been built up in recent years that RVM is subject to the TCPA’s ATDS restrictions. This is unlikely to be changed by the Facebook decision. However, there is a widely held, mistaken belief on the part of many callers that RVM is not an ATDS. This makes RVM one of the riskiest dialing methods of all.
Case Study
A District Court ruled that RVM should be subject to the TCPA’s ATDS restrictions. The court essentially found that, while ringless voicemail technically might not violate the letter of the law, it still violates the spirit. It determined that, because the plaintiff’s cellphone number was used in the transmission of a message that could be retrieved on a cellular device, the technology should still be subject to the TCPA.