Tampa · Spam calls and robocallsRobocalls and spam texts in Tampa. Federal and Florida law push back.

Last reviewed October 18, 2026 by Jackson McMillan, Florida attorney

Short answer: If a business robocalled your Tampa cell phone without consent, made repeated sales calls to your registered number, or kept texting sales offers more than 15 days after you replied STOP, federal law and Florida's FTSA may let you sue. A Tampa case may be filed in federal court downtown or in the Thirteenth Judicial Circuit.

• Office in Tampa. Clients anywhere in Florida.
• Free, confidential review by phone or online.
• Jackson McMillan, Florida Bar No. 1078951

Which laws protect Tampa residents from spam calls?

Two laws do most of the work. The Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) is the federal law on robocalls and telemarketing, and it lets people sue over illegal calls. The Florida Telephone Solicitation Act (FTSA) is Florida's own law on sales calls and texts. Calls to a Florida area code like 813 are presumed to reach someone in Florida.

The TCPA has two main parts. The robocall part bars calls to your cell phone that use a prerecorded message, an artificial voice, or an autodialer unless you gave prior express consent, and sales robocalls need your written consent. A prerecorded message is simply a voice recorded ahead of time and played when you answer or left in your voicemail. The FCC has ruled that AI-generated and cloned voices count as artificial voices.

An autodialer, in the TCPA's sense, is narrower than most people think. In Facebook v. Duguid (2021), the Supreme Court held that the equipment must be able to store or produce numbers using a random or sequential number generator. A system that dials a stored list of customers usually doesn't count. That limit doesn't apply to recorded or AI voices, which is why those calls make stronger claims.

The other part protects the National Do Not Call Registry, the free federal list at donotcall.gov where you can register your number to opt out of most sales calls. Telemarketers may not make sales calls to registered residential numbers, and courts often treat a personal cell phone as residential. You can sue after more than one such call in 12 months from the same company.

The FTSA adds Florida rules on top. It bars certain automated sales calls without written consent, sales calls to numbers on Florida's own no-sales-solicitation list, and contact after you tell a seller to stop. It covers calls, texts, and voicemails meant to sell consumer goods, services, or credit, but not political, survey, or debt collection calls (Fla. Stat. § 501.059).

Which calls and texts in Tampa may break the law?

The same call can be legal or illegal depending on who made it, what it was for, and what you agreed to. The table below sorts the situations I hear about most often, from recorded warranty pitches to late-night sales calls, by the rule that may apply and what the law requires before you can sue.

Two Florida details trip people up. First, before suing for damages over sales texts under the FTSA, you must reply STOP to the number that texted you and give the company 15 days; only texts after that window support a claim. Second, whether marketing texts count for a federal Do Not Call lawsuit is unsettled in the courts, so I don't promise federal damages for texts. My page on spam texts in Florida covers both.

Can a Tampa lawyer do anything about scam robocalls?

Sometimes, and it is better to be honest about the limits. Many robocalls come from scammers who fake caller ID, change numbers, or operate overseas, and no lawsuit reaches them in any useful way. The claims I can pursue are against a real, identifiable business that made the calls or had them made for it.

A seller that hires a telemarketing vendor or buys leads can be responsible for that vendor's illegal calls under ordinary agency rules, and the federal Do Not Call section expressly covers calls made on a company's behalf. So a call that came from an unknown number may still lead back to a seller with a name, an address, and the ability to pay a judgment.

Tracing it is the hard part. Write down any company, product, website, or callback number the caller mentions. Don't press 1, play along, or pretend you want to buy just to find out who is behind the calls; that can blur the facts and, in some cases, create the kind of business relationship an exemption relies on.

If the calls lead nowhere, I'll tell you that plainly rather than file something that can't be won or collected. Reporting the calls to the FTC is still worth doing, but it is a report, not a claim for money.

Where would a Tampa spam call case be filed?

Federal TCPA claims can be heard in the federal court for the Middle District of Florida, whose Tampa Division sits in the Sam M. Gibbons United States Courthouse at 801 North Florida Avenue. The TCPA also allows suit in state court where state court rules permit it, and for Tampa that means Hillsborough County's state courts.

The Tampa Division of the federal court serves Hardee, Hillsborough, Manatee, Pasco, Pinellas, Polk, and Sarasota Counties. A Tampa Bay resident's federal case would usually land there, no matter which of those counties you live in.

On the state side, Florida law makes the Thirteenth Judicial Circuit a one-county circuit: it is made up of Hillsborough County alone (Fla. Stat. § 26.021). Neighbors fall in other circuits. Pinellas and Pasco Counties form the Sixth Circuit, Polk is part of the Tenth, and Manatee and Sarasota are part of the Twelfth. Within Florida's state courts, county court handles civil cases up to $50,000, and circuit court handles larger ones.

Choosing the court is a strategy question, not something you need to solve before calling. It depends on whether the claims are federal, Florida, or both, how many calls there were, and whether many other people got the same calls. You don't need to visit any courthouse for the case review itself.

What could a Tampa spam call claim be worth?

For a robocall without the required consent, the TCPA provides $500 per violation or your actual losses, whichever is greater. For calls that break the Do Not Call rules, the award is up to $500 per call. A court may raise either award as high as three times that amount if the company acted willfully or knowingly.

The FTSA allows actual damages or $500, whichever is greater, and a court may increase it up to three times for willful or knowing violations. Under both laws you can also ask the court to order the calls to stop.

What a real case is worth turns on proof. How many calls can you document? Did you ever give consent, even by filling out an online quote form? Does an exemption cover the caller? Can the seller be found, and does it have money? Those questions decide more cases than the dollar figure in the statute.

Attorney's fees are where the two laws split. The federal TCPA has no section requiring a losing company to pay your attorney's fees. The FTSA gives attorney's fees and costs to the prevailing party, so it runs both ways: if an FTSA claim is brought and lost, the consumer can be ordered to pay the company's fees. I talk through that risk with you before filing anything under the FTSA. You don't pay me unless you win. I take these cases on contingency: no attorney's fees and no case costs owed to me unless you recover money. If a case is lost, a court can sometimes order the losing side to pay the other side's court costs, and some Florida laws, including the security deposit and deceptive practices statutes, also let the winner recover attorney's fees from the loser. I explain that risk before anything is filed, and every term is in a written agreement before you sign.

How long do I have to act on spam calls in Tampa?

A federal TCPA claim generally must be filed within four years of each call. The FTSA has no deadline written into it; Florida's four-year limit for claims based on a statute probably applies, but no court has decided that. Because each call has its own date, older calls drop out first, so don't let the records age.

If the calls come from a debt collector, Florida's collection law gives you two years. My page on debt collector harassment explains those rules.

How does working with my Tampa office on a spam call case work?

You start with a free case review online or by phone, sending screenshots, voicemails, and anything else you have. I look at what kind of calls they were, whether you consented, whether an exemption applies, and whether a company can be identified. Then I tell you whether you have a claim worth bringing.

McMillan Law has one office, in Tampa, and in-person meetings there are by appointment. Most of the early work happens by phone and email, which is how I also represent people with these claims in other parts of Florida. My practice focuses on consumer protection, including calls and texts that cross legal lines.

What to do today

• Check that your number is on the Do Not Call Registry at donotcall.gov, sign up for Florida's list too, and save both confirmations.
• Screenshot your recent calls before your phone clears them, including numbers that look local but may be spoofed.
• Keep every voicemail, since it can prove a recorded or AI voice.
• For sales texts, reply STOP, screenshot your reply and any answer, and note the date so you can count 15 days.
• Write down any company or product the caller named, and whether you ever filled out a form or asked for a quote.
• Send it to me. Request a free case review with what you've gathered, and I'll tell you whether the calls support a claim against a company that can be found.

For a fuller list of what to keep, see my checklist on how to document spam calls.

Sources: 47 U.S.C. §§ 227(a)(1), 227(b), 227(c)(5); 47 C.F.R. §§ 64.1200(a), 64.1200(c), 64.1200(d); Fla. Stat. §§ 501.059, 501.616, 26.021, 34.01; 28 U.S.C. § 1658(a); Facebook, Inc. v. Duguid, 592 U.S. 395 (2021); FCC Declaratory Ruling, FCC 24-17 (2024); U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida, Tampa Division location information. Last reviewed October 18, 2026.