> It does mean that in the US, businesses sending SMSs to individuals are supposed to go through a "double opt-in" process and have really easy opt-out procedur

> It does mean that in the US, businesses sending SMSs to individuals are supposed to go through a "double opt-in" process and have really easy opt-out procedures, on pain of the FCC having some kind of punitive actions available. But I guess they must not be working, or something. Technically, the FCC cares about as much about unsolicited robocalls as they do for unsolicited SMS messages for the TCPA. And the penalties can add up quickly; $500-$1,500 USD -per violation-, not per person you violated the TCPA (IOW, if your automated system sends 10 texts to 10 people that it shouldn't have, it's potentially $50,000-$150,000 and not $5,000-15,000). The upshot for -consumers-, is that there are lots of hungry TCPA lawyers that will happily take your case. Some people even try to file claims themselves, even if it may not be fully legitimate[0]. The issue with robocalls, versus SMS messages: I've found that even if you follow the TCPA 'Script', you'll at best wind up in a weird state in the robocaller's system where they will still call you, but the system immediately disconnects. On top of that, the numbers are often spoofed anyway[1] so it's difficult to get the right number. AFAIK SMS messages, it's harder to spoof the number.[2] [0] - 'Illegitimate claim' can range from "Somebody didn't pay attention to a box they checked on an online form" to "Welp this guy's going to jail for stalking... I guess stupid criminals do exist." [1] - IDK if SHAKEN/STIR will help much, but here's hoping [2] - OTOH There is a real problem with numbers getting 'poached', even if they are already registered with a VOIP carrier that follows all the proper processes around porting. One bad actor makes it easy to mess up the system.