There is an increase in the number of people who have been victims of text message scams. In 2024, Americans lost about $470 million because of text message scams, as reported by the FTC in 2025. This is five times the money that people lost in 2020.
The FTC also received more than 2.6 million Do Not Call complaints in fiscal year 2025, including complaints involving unwanted telemarketing calls and robocalls. The National Do Not Call Registry had more than 258 million active registrations by September 30, 2025. But is spamming illegal?
There are situations when unsolicited text messages may constitute a violation of federal statutes and state laws. More so when these are deceptive in nature, to solicit monetary advantage, marketing, fraud, or lack of proper consent.
Understanding when spam messages cross the line into potentially unlawful conduct can help consumers recognize their rights and possible remedies. Let’s take a closer look.
What Actually Counts as Spam Under the Law
Spam is usually defined as an email that is sent to a person who did not ask for it and does not have any connection whatsoever with the one sending the email.
This particular definition is important in distinguishing a legitimate but unwanted marketing campaign from a company from which one has transacted and spam from people who have nothing to do with the recipient before.
Specific Content Can Push an Email Into Illegal Territory
Apart from the basic concept, statutes such as that of California concerning spamming have gone ahead to define clearly what constitutes a spam email as far as laws are concerned.
Under California Business and Professions Code § 17529.5, prohibited conduct can include sending commercial email advertisements that contain falsified or misrepresented header information, use certain unauthorized third-party domain names, or contain subject lines that are likely to mislead recipients about a material fact concerning the message.
California law also separately restricts certain practices used to facilitate unsolicited commercial email. This includes collecting email addresses for that purpose and registering multiple email accounts or domain names using false information.
Who Can Actually Bring a Legal Case Over Spam
In most cases, the right to pursue the law against illegal spam is not restricted to the recipient of the unsolicited email alone. Under different jurisdictions, the case can be pursued either by the state attorney general or the email service provider that suffers from the spam, meaning that one sender of mass emails can be legally attacked from different angles at once.
Criminal Penalties Can Apply, Not Just Civil Ones
Based upon the individual state, sending out illegal spam may not simply mean that there will be civil liability involved. There are many states that have misdemeanor criminal penalties for spam, which include time in prison, monetary fines, or other forms of punishment.
It is this potential for both criminal prosecution and civil liability that sets apart the two types of spamming.
Location of the Recipient Can Matter More Than the Sender’s
One issue that will shock many senders is that in some instances, the laws on spam enacted by states are determined according to the geographical location of the recipient rather than that of the sender.
A firm that sends out marketing emails to someone from a state with strict laws on spam will fall under those laws despite the fact that the firm is not located in that state.
A Spam Lawsuit Is a Form of Civil Litigation
When a recipient or another affected party has a legal right to bring a civil claim involving unlawful spam, the dispute may fall within general civil litigation. Civil litigation generally addresses disputes between private parties and may involve remedies such as monetary damages or injunctive relief, rather than criminal penalties such as imprisonment.
In a civil lawsuit involving unlawful spam, the available remedies may include monetary damages or an injunction requiring the unlawful conduct to stop, depending on the law under which the claim is brought. A civil case does not result in imprisonment. However, separate criminal penalties may apply if the conduct also violates a criminal law in the relevant jurisdiction.
Why Marketers and Recipients Both Benefit From Understanding These Rules
For someone sending any kind of commercial e-mail, knowing how far the law will allow them to go without crossing over into illegality is very important. To the recipient, knowledge about the legal repercussions associated with such deceptive spam should make sure that one does not simply ignore it.
When It’s Worth Pursuing Legal Action Over Spam
An isolated spam email may not warrant the effort to sue someone in court. In cases when there is a pattern of spam with false headers or false sender identification, however, there is another story. In such instances, a civil liability and a possible criminal liability in some states of the United States make the situation different.
