Junk Faxes

All of us are inundated by junk faxes. Consumers are plagued by the receipt of unwelcome, unsolicited faxes advertising everything from penny stocks to travel opportunities. They arrive on our fax machines day and night, interrupt our work, and use up our paper, toner, and electricity. Junk faxes are unwelcome and illegal. Under both state and federal law, the “fax blasters” are liable to pay $500 for each illegal fax that you receive. Many junk faxers are difficult to trace, but our firm investigates all junk faxes that are sent to us by clients to see if an action can be brought to recover damages and require the junk faxers to cease their practices. Our firm has brought many cases seeking permanent injunctions against the businesses that sent the faxes, damages, and contributions, where appropriate, to charitable organizations.

Junk faxes are often sent by businesses who are approached by a so-called “fax blaster” who agrees to send out a certain number of junk faxes for the business in a particular area code or other designated location. Fax blasters use sophisticated equipment to “harvest” fax numbers in the designated area and then send out the faxes. It is sometimes difficult to identify and locate the fax blaster. Part of our strategy in bringing these cases against the individual business that hired the fax blaster is to raise awareness in the community about the illegality of junk faxes.

We would be happy to review any fax to determine if it is illegal and bring a claim accordingly. A fax may be legally sent under certain circumstances, primarily in the context of a prior business relationship between the recipient and the sender.