Are you swiping away non-stop spam texts? Each unwanted message from a company could win you $1,500 under federal law

Are you swiping away non-stop spam texts? Each unwanted message from a company could win you $1,500 under federal law

Eric Esposito

Tue, January 27, 2026 at 10:30 AM EST

6 min read

Recent data suggests that Americans receive more than 642 million spam texts every day as of December 2025, according to the spam text and call blocking app Robokiller. That means that every second in the U.S., about 7,431 phones simultaneously ding or ring with these unwanted messages (1).

According to Pew Research, 61% of U.S. adults say they receive some type of scam or suspicious text message at least once a week, while 20% report daily notifications (2).

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And this high-tech plague isn’t set to get any better. The growth of AI is making spam faster and easier to produce. Although the researchers were looking at a different medium (email rather than text), a Columbia University study found that 51% of spam in April 2025 was AI-generated (3).

Unfortunately, since it’s difficult to track many of these messages, there’s little people can do except block those ever-changing spam numbers, text STOP to unsubscribe if possible, and swipe the digital garbage out of view.

However, the power shifts in the smartphone owner’s favor when the sender isn’t hiding their identity — like a company spamming you with texts about discounts or promotions.

If a business keeps texting someone who clearly said to back off, federal law gives consumers a way to fight back — and it could earn you money.

Turning texts into $1,500

Passed in 1991, the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) was intended to curb the explosion of intrusive telemarketing and robocalls. Although smartphones were yet to hit the market at the time, courts and regulators have since updated the law making it clear that spam texts are treated the same as unsolicited calls (4).

Under TCPA, businesses need your explicit permission to send marketing messages, and they must stop when you say so.

So, if you make it clear you want to opt out, you’ve revoked that consent, and any additional marketing texts are illegal.

Here’s where things get serious. Under the TCPA, a business that keeps texting you after you’ve hit “STOP” can be required to pay you money for each message it sends. The law allows consumers to recover $500 per illegal text, and, if people can show the company knew what it was doing and ignored “STOP” requests, that could increase to a max of $1,500 per text (5).

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TCPA cases are often brought as class actions, so a single lawsuit can cover thousands or even millions of people who received the same illegal texts.

You probably know of a few big-name brands that had to pay out for spam texts in recent years. One of the largest of these TCPA cases was against the credit card company Capital One, which paid out $75.5 million in 2014 to settle claims that it used autodialers and prerecorded messages to call consumers’ cell phones (6).

More recently, the popular fintech app Cash App paid out a $12.5 million settlement to resolve claims that it sent SMS marketing messages without users’ consent between 2019 and 2023.

That sounds like a lot, but keep in mind the number of affected users. For instance, in the Cash App case, average payouts were between $88 and $147 (7).

Although nobody’s going to say no to an extra $88, the only way to get the full amount out of these unsolicited spam texts is to work with a lawyer.

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How to cash in on a company’s bad texting tactics

Whenever a business ignores your opt-out request, you can turn that violation into some serious money if you take the right steps and stay persistent.

Unfortunately, there isn’t much to be done about scam artists’ texts. Under the TCPA, there must be a known company for you to sue, like a retailer that continued spamming you after you opted out of its texts.

You need to clearly tell the company in question that you don’t want these spammy messages by hitting the “STOP” or “UNSUBSCRIBE” button and not engaging further. Even debt collectors must comply with do-not-call requests.

Next, get in the habit of saving everything the company sends you afterward. Instead of just deleting these messages, take screenshots showing the phone number, the date and time, and your opt-out reply. Each of these unwanted texts can potentially count as a separate TCPA violation, so it’ll be worth the temporary nuisance of taking up some memory space.

As you gather this evidence, look up consumer rights attorneys in your area with a solid track record and, if possible, prior TCPA experience. Because TCPA cases can bring statutory damages of up to $1,500 per text (although it’s usually less in practice) with no cap, many attorneys will look into these cases without any upfront cost, which lawyers call “on contingency” (8).

But even if you don’t file your own lawsuit, you might be entitled to money from a big settlement like the ones for Capitol One or Cash App. If any of the texts you’ve received match the time period and company involved, filing a claim can get you a payout with minimal effort. You can find open class actions at ClassAction.org (9).

Start viewing those spam texts as treasure rather than trash. When businesses ignore your request to stay away, they may be handing you a chance to cash in.

Are you swiping away non-stop spam texts? Each unwanted message from a company could win you $1,500 under federal law