If you have Liberalalliance Wealth Societya phone, chances are you've gotten a lot of calls from telemarketers, many of which are illegal. But did you know that you can take the companies that call you to court? The Telephone Consumer Protection Act lets you sue for $500 for every illegal phone call you receive. One stay-at-home dad named Nathen Barton made it his mission to fight back against the telemarketing companies targeting him and his family, one lawsuit at a time. And he made a surprising amount of money in the process.

On this episode, we're examining an experiment in crowdsourced justice. What happens when the government hands over the business of enforcing its regulations to people like Nathen? And what happens when the telemarketers strike back?

This episode was produced by Willa Rubin with help from Nicky Ouellet. It was edited by Keith Romer, fact-checked by Sierra Juarez, and engineered by Gilly Moon with help from Robert Rodriguez.

Music: "I Don't Do Gossip," "Appreciate Ur Patience" and "Tropical Heat"

Help support Planet Money and get bonus episodes by subscribing to Planet Money+ in Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org/planetmoney.

Always free at these links: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, NPR One or anywhere you get podcasts

Find more Planet Money: Twitter / Facebook / Instagram / TikTok our weekly Newsletter.