UK watchdog fines two firms £270k for cold-calling 531,000 people who had opted out
- Reference: 1613403132
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2021/02/15/cold_call_ico_fines/
- Source link:
As savvy Reg readers know only too well, it is illegal to make unsolicited phone calls to anyone signed up to [1]TPS for 28 days or more. Just last month UK data watchdog the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) issued the [2]same financial slap against four companies found to be flouting regulations.
[3]
The latest offenders successfully dialled up hundreds of thousands of TPS users over a months-long period that led to numerous complaints to the ICO and TPS. The pair contravened regulation 21 of the Privacy and Electronics Communication Regulations (PECR) 2003.
[4]Call Centre Ops [PDF] of Nottingham, in the heart of England, made 159,461 direct marketing calls to TPS registered users between May and October 2019, and a number of complaints were subsequently were sent to the ICO. The company told the watchdog that it used data provided by third-party lead generation suppliers.
[5]
The ICO said there was no evidence the business had made checks to ensure adequacy of consent to call TPS users in the database, and it fined Call Centre Ops £120,000. The director has until 12 March to pay.
When it contacted Call Centre Ops in March last year with an end-of-investigation email, the ICO discovered the business – whose sole director was listed on Companies House as [6]Roberto Milanesi – had been liquidated. The ICO does have powers to go after directors of businesses that have folded when it chooses.
Four cold calling marketing firms fined almost £500k by ICO [7]READ MORE
The second offender was [8]House Guard [PDF], located in Bournemouth on the south coast, which was found to have made 699,966 marketing calls between May and December 2018 – 371,958 to TPS-registered numbers. The business, which specialises in masonry protection solutions, generated 58 complaints.
The ICO said it had asked House Guard about compliance with PECR, and found it too had bought a database of phone numbers from several third parties, and had not screened the data against TPS. The ICO said there were multiple breaches of PECR.
House Guard has now been fined £150,000 and payment is due via BACS transfer or cheque by 12 March. This will be reduced by 20 per cent if payment in full is made by 11 March.
"If you sign up to the TPS, you should not expect to get nuisance calls. It's as simple as that," said Andy Curry, head of investigations at the ICO. "Companies that have no respect for their customers wishes and choose to flout the law can expect to face the consequences – for their reputation and their bottom line."
We have asked the ICO if it intends to pursue Milanesi, the founder and sole director at Call Centre Ops, and a spokesperson said: "The ICO doesn't find directors, officers of companies or companies themselves 'guilty'.
[9]
"A monetary penalty is a civil administrative procedure. As you know a final Notice has recently been issued against Call Centre Ops for £120,000. If the penalty is unpaid after the deadline set out in the Notice, the ICO will consider all options open to it to undertake further action against responsible staff at the company, including recovery of the penalty in full." ®
Get our [10]Tech Resources
[1] https://www.tpsonline.org.uk/
[2] https://www.theregister.com/2021/01/27/four_cold_calling_marketing_firms/
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_security/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2YCqosFsWDVPkbtffrqq1@AAAAMo&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[4] https://ico.org.uk/media/action-weve-taken/mpns/2619281/call-centre-ops-limited-mpn.pdf
[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_security/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33YCqosFsWDVPkbtffrqq1@AAAAMo&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[6] https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/officers/YnwMhn3O111vQShRAUE7dhvHA5s/appointments
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2021/01/27/four_cold_calling_marketing_firms/
[8] https://ico.org.uk/media/action-weve-taken/mpns/2619282/house-guard-uk-limited-mpn.pdf
[9] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_security/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YCqosFsWDVPkbtffrqq1@AAAAMo&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[10] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Re: The scams will continue until things change....
Looking at the accounts data held at Companies House, the company went bust in March 2020, owing approximately 250K to HMRC + other creditors (the ICO was not a creditor at this time as it looks no fine had been raised until Feb 2021 almost a year later).
It looks like the company actually went bust properly, unlike other companies that go bust owing just the ICO fine as a method to avoid the fine.
Lots getting away with it
The main issue is that it's possible to make up phone numbers for caller ID systems. I have often received phone calls from those that look like UK numbers, but seem to be missing a digit. If there is a way of blocking those made up numbers, it would help a great deal. I will have a legit phone number that I can send to the ICO to complain about.
Spoofing unused codes
There are a lot of unallocated dialling codes in the UK.
I have had calls (Indian accent but that simply helps confirm things) from what appears to the uninitiated as a call from a UK landline, but a quick check showed the dialling code was not actually used.
A pretty common trick used by would be scammers (We often get the "This is Microsoft calling about your computer" - quite amusing when I tell them I design computers for a living and besides, the computer is currently turned off).
Fines are not fine
While the UK and EU are the gold standard in privacy regulations, their enforcement leaves much to be desired.
Since May of 2018, the EU (which included the UK) collected $329.8m in privacy fines while the US collected almost $6b.
https://www.politico.eu/article/europe-privacy-fines-tech-what-the-us-can-teach/
Why would you try to call numbers who have literally said they don't want to hear from you? What a waste of your precious sales-call time!
I'm on TPS and have moved several friends and relatives to it, I have to say, it does make a significant difference almost overnight even if it's not perfect.
People get confused, though, when they then put their number on something and it later gets rung by that company - that's allowed. You gave them permission by giving them your number and not ticking the right boxes. It's only unsolicited calls that are affected.
In the last 20 years, my main number hasn't changed at all (I always used my mobile number for everything) and I get next-to-zero spam, and when I do, it's obviously illegal stuff: calls from far-away countries that I've never dealt with, and never leave a message. They just ring out silently on my phone, because they're not in my contacts list and then I choose whether or not to call them back after later Googling them.
But I don't get the point of calling people who have literally opted out. They're least likely to want to hear from you, and most likely to file a complaint. It just seems dumb.
Does it cost much to check that list of numbers against TPS or something? Is it prohibitive so they just don't bother and risk a fine? Because it seems stupid not to.
"But I don't get the point of calling people who have literally opted out."
I answered this question many years ago, got downvoted to high-heaven and a stream of abuse about how stupid I was.
I used to work for a marketing firm many years ago pre GDPR, and they took the view that an entry on the TPS database, indicated a clean number. They literally used the list to filter out numbers on their marketing database, on the basis that if it was on the list, then it was genuine. They are still in business to this day, and have expanded from a small company in Manchester, to a worldwide marketing firm, so clearly it worked.
They also held the view that there was no penalty for non-compliance, Which pre GDPR was also the case.
Reporting calls
Is it possible to report unsolicited calls to the ICO? I have occasionally received calls about my 'recent car accident', despite the last one being in 2000. On enquiring where they got the information from, the caller generally hangs up, but it would be nice to report them to the ICO.
They are unsolicited to the extent that I certainly have not asked for them, and the idea that they have personal information about me that is incorrect (a spurious 'car accident') could be covered by data protection legislation.
Re: Reporting calls
Surely though, if it's not correct, it's not information, and therefore data protection does not apply.
Re: Reporting calls
Yep. ICO or even Ofcom. It's a bit of a faff but there's a webform for either that will direct you to the right place. And if you're on TPS you can complain to TPS directly too.
It won't stop those kinds of calls, but it'll limit them somewhat.
Far easier is to just configure your phones better - unless you know the number, have it silently push to a voicemail. If you know the number, have it ring as normal. That's really easy on mobile (and no app required), easy on SIP and available on traditional landlines if you pay (but, to be honest, just get a mobile phone SIM, virtual office or a SIP line and live in the 21st Century a bit).
I'd rather not rely on some third-party to police that for me, to be honest, and just have a system that works for me rather than tries to sell me out and then expects me to pay to keep that away. I've used two mobile SIMs, one for the last 20 years on the cheapest calls package, for years, one kept utterly private, and never bothered with a landline number at all. I get basically no spam. What I do get rings off silently into nothing and doesn't disturb me, while my contacts get straight through to me.
I also have a SIP account with its own number and, hell, even Skype can give you a number for a tiny monthly amount now. They'll never stop all the Indian / Asian / Cayman Islands etc. ones because they are just out of their jurisdiction, so just have your phone send them silently to voicemail or even just to a permanently-ringing extension (which is what my phone does... if you want to hear from me genuinely, you'll realise after the 10th ring and just text me instead).
Don't pay the people creating the problem money, with "Caller ID Blocking" charges, etc. on your BT line. That's just dumb. You're just paying them to solve the problem they created. Just start using a number on your mobile or move to IP phones (so even your house phone can just be a IP extension). I have one SIM for work (10+ years of self-employment, 10+ years of general usage on top), one for personal, neither ring unless it's someone I know and the personal number almost nobody knows. They're even on different networks, so if one stops working, I can just switch to using the other.
And for business, virtual office numbers are dirt-cheap and a real live human answers your calls like a secretary, with your company name, just takes a message, and then sends it to you some other way.
Re: Reporting calls
I've given up reporting the "recent accident" phone calls. I think most of them originate in India and are basically scams and the ICO has no power to do anything about them. The first part of the call is automated and is from a pleasant sounding woman with an English accent. If you continue with that you get put through to an Indian call centre. I either wind them up with a non-existent accident or ask them to confirm that they like a big stiff cock up their arse. The number of such calls has diminished considerably. I swear one such caller dropped a cup of coffee based upon a clattering noise followed by cussing on the other end of the line, which wasn't aimed at me and more towards some sort of mishap at his end.
It's OK if it's an app
Turn off Android notifications and you will get continuous messages telling you to turn notifications back on.
Caller Line Identification
I regularly (average 2 a day) get calls from local numbers according from the CLI. (One time from a number I actually knew!)
Nearly all turn out to be "Amazon", "iPAD order", or similar, all from text to speech voices.
Hanging is too good for them!
Re: Caller Line Identification
You can add
- Insurance on your Sky equipment
- Not having a TV license
- About to be arrested by HMRC
- Being sued for non-payment of a debt
- Having a High court writ outstanding - pay up or else.
- Netflx subscription denied -(Attempt to get CC or bank details)
The problem is obvious. . . . nobody is using the required TPS Report Cover Sheets.. .
. . . .Apparently, they didn't get the memo. . . (grin)
The scams will continue until things change....
"whose sole director was listed on Companies House as Roberto Milanesi – had been liquidated. The ICO does have powers to go after directors of businesses that have folded"
Why not? is the obvious question.
OK if the ICO does not have the powers why are the details not passed to the police as;
"it is illegal to make unsolicited phone calls to anyone signed up to TPS"
Other wise its going to be rinse and repeat....all he way to the bank for the scammer...