What happens when a fake number lands in your marketing list. March 25, 2026 | Adriana Kostencki, Esq., TCPA, Telephone Consumer Protection A guy named Brian wanted a debt consolidation loan. He visited LendingTree, filled out a form, and deliberately entered a fake phone number to dodge spam. The number he invented happened to belong to Chet Wilson, a registered Do Not Call list subscriber who had never heard of Brian, LendingTree, or Reprise Financial. Reprise Financial then texted that number four times in November 2024, addressed to Brian, asking him to complete his loan application. Wilson sued. Reprise moved for summary judgment on the theory that Brian had consented, Brian gave them the number, and therefore they had permission. The court was not convinced and held that the TCPA requires permission from the recipient, not whoever typed in the digits. In layman's terms, Brian consenting on Wilson's behalf is like your neighbor signing you up for a gym membership, creative, but legally meaningless. Reprise also argued the texts were purely informational and not "telephone solicitations," just nudging Brian to finish what he started. Wilson countered that Reprise purchased his lead from LendingTree and sent messages designed to close a loan deal. The court found both readings plausible from the same undisputed facts, which is exactly the kind of tie that goes to the jury. The one clean win for Reprise was on treble damages. Wilson could not show Reprise knew it was texting the wrong person. When a third party secretly supplies a bad number, willfulness is a difficult sell, and Wilson had no evidence to make it. This case is a good reminder that if your consent chain runs through a lead generation form where consumers routinely enter fake contact information, that consent is worth exactly what Brian paid for it, nothing. If your business relies on third-party lead generation, you cannot simply assume that the number submitted belongs to the person who submitted it. Audit your consent practices, verify your data sources, and understand that a downstream TCPA claim lands on you, not the consumer who typed in a fake number to avoid your calls in the first place. Adriana Kostencki, Esq. TCPA Litigation Attorney