Indiana Do Not Call List: How the State Registry Works and What Callers Face

Indiana is one of the states with its own list

Many states folded their do not call lists into the federal registry. Indiana did not. Its Telephone Solicitation of Consumers law, Indiana Code 24-4.7, has the Attorney General’s Consumer Protection Division publish a state listing every quarter. A telephone solicitor “may not make or cause to be made a telephone sales call to a telephone number if that telephone number appears in the most current quarterly listing published by the division” (IC 24-4.7-4-1).

How to use it:

• Register: online at indonotcall.org or by calling 1-888-834-9969.
• When it takes effect: the list is updated quarterly, on January 1, April 1, July 1, and October 1. Your protection starts with the next quarterly listing after you register.
• What it covers: home and wireless numbers. The Attorney General’s page says “a telephone sales call includes a text message sent to your wireless telephone number.”
• Complain: through the Attorney General’s telephone privacy complaint form, by mail to the Data Privacy and Identity Theft Unit, or at 1-888-834-9969.

You should also register on the federal list at donotcall.gov. The two lists are separate, and only the federal one supports a private federal lawsuit.

What Indiana counts as a telephone sales call

Indiana’s definition is broad (IC 24-4.7-2-9). It includes calls made to sell consumer goods or services, to ask for charitable contributions, or to gather information for a sales pitch. It expressly includes autodialed calls, recorded messages, and “text messages, graphics, images, photographs, and multimedia messages” sent by SMS, MMS, over-the-top messaging apps, or voice services. So a WhatsApp-style marketing message can fall inside it.

Rules that reach the whole calling chain

IC 24-4.7-4-7 goes past the caller. A telephone solicitor, supplier, or caller may not:

• Sell or share numbers it knows are on the current Indiana listing for sales purposes.
• Transfer a live call to another company when that call already broke the Indiana law or the autodialer statute.
• Give substantial help to someone it knows, or consciously avoids knowing, is violating the law.

Phone carriers that only carry the traffic are protected. Lead generators and “transfer” call centers are not.

Indiana’s recorded-message law

A separate statute, IC 24-5-14, controls automatic dialing-announcing devices. A caller may not use one unless you “knowingly or voluntarily requested, consented to, permitted, or authorized” the message, or a live operator gets your consent first (IC 24-5-14-5(b)). The Attorney General’s page describes this as requiring “a live phone operator to obtain permission before playing a pre-recorded message.” School messages, work-schedule messages, and messages to people with a current business or personal relationship are exempt.

Penalties, and why you cannot sue under Indiana’s statute

Indiana’s penalties are high on paper. In an Attorney General case, a court may impose a civil penalty of $10,000 for the first violation and $25,000 for each later one, and each call to a listed number counts separately (IC 24-4.7-5-2). The autodialer statute carries the same amounts (IC 24-5-14-13). Company owners and executives who control a violator can be separately liable (IC 24-4.7-5-1).

But the statute makes a violation a deceptive act “actionable by the attorney general.” It does not give consumers their own damages claim. A court in an Attorney General action may order restitution to an aggrieved consumer (IC 24-4.7-5-3), but you cannot file your own Indiana do not call suit for statutory damages. Be wary of anyone who tells you Indiana law lets you collect $10,000 per call.

Your private claim comes from federal law. If your number is on the National Do Not Call Registry and a company made more than one sales call to you in 12 months, the TCPA allows up to $500 per violation, or up to $1,500 if willful or knowing. Recorded sales calls and autodialed texts without consent can support separate TCPA claims. Read our federal do not call rule guide and our page on texting rules.

Indiana enforcement you can check

• Rising Eagle Capital Group and JSquared Telecom. On March 6, 2023, Attorney General Todd Rokita announced judgments against John Spiller, Jakob Mears, and their companies. The office said they made more than 25 million robocalls to Hoosiers in 2019 and 2020, including more than 5 million to people on the Indiana Do Not Call list. The court entered judgments of more than $244 million combined, largely suspended because of inability to pay, and permanent bans on robocalling and telemarketing. Arkansas, Michigan, Missouri, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, and Texas joined.
• Startel and Piratel. On March 30, 2022, the office announced a settlement with Piratel, LLC in its case against Startel, LLC and others, which it said involved more than 4.8 million calls to Hoosiers.

What to do next in Indiana

Register on both lists, then give it time: the Indiana list only protects you from the next quarterly update. After that, report every sales call to the Attorney General’s complaint form, since state enforcement depends on complaints. For a federal claim, keep a log with dates, numbers, and company names; our guide for when you cannot identify the caller helps with spoofed numbers. For neighboring states, see the state law hub.