Consumers continue to pile lawsuits over spam calls and messages against a wide range of originators, in complaints that, if successful, could deliver big paydays.

Rocket Mortgage and United Wholesale Mortgage are among the nine lenders facing new Telephone Consumer Protection Act complaints filed since February. Some of the companies have already moved to dismiss the lawsuits, or in one case allegedly settle the claims, as consumers all say they received unwanted offers for mortgages via phone calls and text messages despite being on Do Not Call registries. 

Some plaintiffs have scored big wins in past TCPA cases, including a $20 million settlement from Anywhere Real Estate last January for a class of nearly 300,000 customers. More TCPA class action complaints against mortgage lenders in recent years however have fizzled out, with either quiet actions or agreements to terminate the accusations, or long-running litigation that has yet to approach class certification stages.

UWM, in denying accusations that it called one Coloradan over 50 times last year, had one of its executives file a declaration last week describing the lender's innocence. While Bridget Warne claims a UWM representative continually called her and asked to speak with another unknown customer, the lender said it has no record of business with any of the mentioned names. 

Further, the lender suggested a third party was liable, as its wholesale agreements with brokers prohibit the lending partners from representing themselves as UWM agents. A spokesperson for the lender Tuesday said the allegations are factually incorrect. 

"We intend to defend against these claims and are confident they will be resolved in our favor," the UWM spokesperson said. 

One other company, Austin, Texas-based construction and investor lender Streamline Funding, filed a recent motion to dismiss a TCPA complaint filed in February.

Across the latest suits, none of the plaintiffs raised accusations of artificial intelligence-fueled spam calls. A lender who was hit with those allegations in February, Mortgage One Funding, however faces yet another TCPA complaint in its home state of Michigan. 

Nearly all of the companies, plaintiffs and attorneys representing the parties didn't respond to requests for comment Tuesday. 

The latest lenders accused of violating the TCPA

The other five companies facing new allegations of spamming customers with texts and phone calls are: 

• Rocket Mortgage;
• EMortgage Funding in Troy, Michigan; 
• National Mortgage Home Loans in Troy, Michigan; 
• Smart Choice Realty and Mortgage in Los Angeles; 
• Stockton Mortgage Corp. in Frankfort, Kentucky.

Unlike the other new suits, Rocket is being sued by one of its borrowers, who says the lender and servicer pestered her with robocalls on the eve of her monthly servicing payment due date. Marsha Kerr says she received at least 50 robocalls after she answered some of the outreach and told the lender to stop.Jacob Drake, a Florida man who sued EMortgage Funding last month, is the lone plaintiff in the latest wave of claims who is accusing a lender of breaching both federal and state DNC lists in calling him for a refinance. The plaintiff also claims EMortgage Funding acknowledged placing the calls. His attorney declined to comment Tuesday. 

South Carolina resident Jay Connor, a pro se plaintiff who doesn't have an attorney, was behind the suits against E Mortgage Capital, which is unrelated to EMortgage Funding, and National Mortgage Home Loans. 

In a short filing last week, Connor claims he reached a settlement agreement with E Mortgage Capital, although no attorney for the company had yet appeared in the case. The purported deal comes as that larger lender is locked in three active TCPA suits, where it's denied similar accusations of spamming consumers.