Skip tracing and the law for property teams

1. Consumer reports under the FCRA

The Fair Credit Reporting Act is the statute. 15 U.S.C. 1681b lists permissible purposes for furnishing a consumer report. The purposes in subsection (a)(3) include a credit transaction involving the consumer, employment purposes, underwriting of insurance involving the consumer, a determination of eligibility for a license or other government benefit that considers the consumer's financial responsibility, and a legitimate business need in connection with a business transaction initiated by the consumer or with a review of an account. The subsection we read does not list renting a home, and it does not list an offer to buy a property, as its own named purpose.

A contact file used to reach someone about a property is not, on this page, labeled a consumer report. If the use is one of the purposes 1681b names, the statute is the place to read the conditions. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's Regulation V is the FCRA rule. Ask the data provider what its terms allow. This page does not interpret a contract we have not read. How a skip trace differs from a hiring or tenant report is in skip trace vs background check.

2. Financial and motor-vehicle records

15 U.S.C. 6802 is the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act section on disclosures of nonpublic personal information by a financial institution. 18 U.S.C. 2721 is the Driver's Privacy Protection Act section that limits disclosure of personal information from a state motor vehicle record to the purposes that section lists. Both matter when a supplier's file is drawn from those records. The supplier's terms, not this page, say which records it used.

3. Do Not Call and the Telemarketing Sales Rule

The FTC's questions and answers on the Do Not Call provisions say those provisions cover any plan, program, or campaign to sell goods or services through interstate phone calls. That includes telemarketers who solicit consumers and sellers who provide goods or services in return for payment as part of a telemarketing transaction. The same answers say federal do-not-call rules also reach intrastate telemarketing calls under FCC rules. They also say the provisions do not cover calls from political organizations, charities, telephone surveyors, or companies with which a consumer has an existing business relationship, and they describe how that relationship exception works.

The rule text is 16 CFR Part 310. The FTC page describes sales calls. It does not decide, and this page does not decide, whether a particular offer to buy a house is a campaign to sell goods or services. That question is for counsel on the calls you actually place.

4. Autodialers, prerecorded voice, and texts

47 U.S.C. 227 is the Telephone Consumer Protection Act. The FCC rule is 47 CFR 64.1200. Paragraph (a)(1) restricts initiating a call, other than a call made for emergency purposes or with the prior express consent of the called party, using an automatic telephone dialing system or an artificial or prerecorded voice, to the lines the paragraph lists. Those lines include a telephone number assigned to a cellular telephone service. Paragraph (a)(2) requires prior express written consent for a telemarketing call that uses an automatic telephone dialing system or an artificial or prerecorded voice to those lines, apart from the exceptions written in that paragraph.

In paragraph (a)(9), the rule says that as used in that paragraph the word call includes a text message, including a short message service call. Read the paragraph that matches the message. This page does not lift that definition into every other paragraph.

In Facebook, Inc. v. Duguid (2021), the Supreme Court held that an automatic telephone dialing system must have the capacity either to store a telephone number using a random or sequential number generator, or to produce a telephone number using a random or sequential number generator. The FCC's consumer guide on unwanted robocalls and texts is the agency's public explanation. The Duguid holding does not erase the prerecorded-voice or Do Not Call text in the rule. Comparing a list with do-not-call lists is covered in DNC scrubbing. A private list of people who have filed TCPA suits is a different check, in what a litigator scrub is.

5. Commercial email under CAN-SPAM

The FTC's CAN-SPAM guide for business says commercial email must not use false or misleading header information, must not use deceptive subject lines, must identify the message as an ad, must include a valid physical postal address, and must offer a way to opt out. The guide says an opt-out request must be honored within 10 business days. Do-not-call lists are not a mail rule. The do-not-call answers above are about phone calls.

6. State statutes are outside this page

Individual state do-not-call lists, calling-hour rules, telemarketing registration, and texting statutes were not verified for this page. A state rule can differ from the federal sources linked here. The federal map is not a 50 state survey.

7. What these sources cover

The list is a map of the pages above, not a campaign plan and not advice to place or avoid a call.

• 1681b lists permissible purposes for a consumer report. Buying a property is not one of the named purposes in the subsection quoted here.
• 6802 and 2721 limit certain financial and motor-vehicle records.
• The FTC's Do Not Call answers describe which sales calls the TSR provisions cover and which exceptions the FTC lists.
• 64.1200(a)(1) and (a)(2) state consent standards for autodialed and prerecorded calls to the lines they name. Paragraph (a)(9) defines "call" to include a text for that paragraph.
• The CAN-SPAM guide states the header, subject, identification, postal address, and opt-out points for commercial email.
• Counsel who knows the campaign is the person who applies these texts to it.

Common questions

Sources

1. FTC, Fair Credit Reporting Act. Checked October 22, 2026.
2. 15 U.S.C. 1681b, permissible purposes of consumer reports. Checked October 22, 2026.
3. CFPB, Regulation V. Checked October 22, 2026.
4. 15 U.S.C. 6802, Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act. Checked October 22, 2026.
5. 18 U.S.C. 2721, Driver's Privacy Protection Act. Checked October 22, 2026.
6. FTC, Q&A for telemarketers and sellers about the Do Not Call provisions of the TSR. Checked October 22, 2026.
7. 16 CFR Part 310, Telemarketing Sales Rule. Checked October 22, 2026.
8. 47 U.S.C. 227, Telephone Consumer Protection Act. Checked October 22, 2026.
9. 47 CFR 64.1200. Checked October 22, 2026.
10. FCC, stop unwanted robocalls and texts. Linked as the agency consumer guide. This page does not quote it.
11. Facebook, Inc. v. Duguid, decided April 1, 2021. Slip opinion checked October 22, 2026.
12. FTC, CAN-SPAM Act compliance guide. Checked October 22, 2026.

This page is general information, not legal advice. It is not a substitute for advice on a particular campaign.