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When you think of harassment, what’s the first thing that comes to mind? Is it the guy down the street who won’t stop bothering you about your lawn or the sweet lady who keeps ringing your door to try to tell you about the afterlife? Perhaps it’s the person who won’t stop calling your phone. If it’s a company using a predictive dialer and recorded messages, they could be in trouble.

It really wasn’t long ago that companies could be as annoying as they wanted to be in the quest for the ‘yes’ on the phone. That meant they could call you any time of day or night, using any type of technology and messaging and they didn’t even have to be truthful in their scripts. If they pressed on you enough, they got what they wanted.

The only problem with this approach (well, maybe not the only problem) is that it inspired the creation of many a consumer watch group, leading to the development of a number of laws that prevented almost everything marketers wanted to do in order to secure the sale over the phone. Today, telemarketing does still exist, but it’s difficult to operate in this space without breaking the rules.

One of those rules comes with some hefty fines for those who don’t pay attention or just don’t care. A Florida company falls into one of these categories as the U.S. and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC (News - Alert)) issues the largest fine in history for robocalling. The company has been accused of harassing people, leading to a fine of $2.6 million. The Florida-based Travel Marketing Club reportedly only made 185 calls to 142 different numbers – so why the big fine?

For one thing, everyone receiving one of these robocalls was on the Do Not Call registry, which means companies aiming to market to consumers must have a prior relationship with that consumer in order to contact them with offers. If the consumers had not been on the Do Not Call list, the consequences may not have been quite so dire. Even a failure to secure permission may not have drawn such a hefty fine.

This recent violation of FCC rules, however, suggests that the company not only ignored the law, but also didn’t take any means to try to abide by it with its robocalling efforts. Robocalls are not an illegal activity, as long as a company has the consent of the consumer to make the call and extend the offer. When such calls are made without this consent to individuals who made it a point to add their numbers to the Do Not Call registry, the oversight looks intentional.

Such activities also make it more difficult for those companies aiming to conduct legitimate business with a predictive dialer, abiding by the rules of the industry. Hopefully levying such fines will keep others honest and help weed out those who are not.