# Understanding the DO NOT Call Act of 2021

This bill makes the penalties much tougher for people and companies that make illegal robocalls and spam calls. Right now, if someone violates the existing telephone protection laws, the punishments are relatively light. This bill says that if you knowingly and intentionally break these rules, you could face criminal charges including jail time and fines.

Here's what changes: For a basic violation, someone could go to jail for up to one year. But if the violation is more serious—like if you've been convicted before, or you're making massive numbers of calls—the jail time jumps to up to three years. The bill defines "serious" in specific ways: making more than 100,000 calls in a single day, over a million calls in a month, or 10 million calls in a year. It also counts as serious if you're using the calls to commit another crime, or if your illegal calls cause someone to lose $5,000 or more.

The bill also doubles the financial penalties for people who deliberately provide fake caller ID information. Instead of being fined up to $10,000 per violation, they could now face fines up to $20,000. This targets the scammers who spoof phone numbers to make it look like calls are coming from legitimate businesses or government agencies when they're actually coming from criminals.

In practical terms, this bill is aimed at cracking down on the robocall and spam call industry. If you're someone getting bombarded with illegal calls, this bill makes it more likely that the people behind those calls could face serious criminal consequences, not just small fines.

DO NOT Call Act of 2021

Deter Obnoxious, Nefarious, and Outrageous Telephone Calls Act of 2021 or the DO NOT Call Act of 2021 This bill increases and establishes criminal penalties, which include imprisonment for up to one year, for an intentional violation of the prohibition on automated telephone marketing and messaging. In addition, a person may be imprisoned for up to three years for an aggravated violation of such prohibition if the person (1) previously has been convicted of such an offense, (2) initiates a certain high volume of such calls during specified periods of time, (3) commits the offense in the furtherance of a felony, or (4) causes losses of at least $5,000 during any one year period to one or more persons. The bill also increases from $10,000 to $20,000 the fine for intentionally transmitting misleading or inaccurate caller identification information.