Glasgow firm fined £150k after half a million nuisance calls, spoofing phone number, using false trading names
- Reference: 1631003352
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2021/09/07/dialadeal_ico_fine/
- Source link:
The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) fined DialADeal Scotland Ltd (DDSL) after an investigation found that it had targeted numbers registered with the Telephone Preference Service (TPS) where people had expressly withdrawn their consent to receive marketing calls.
The unsolicited phone calls were about non-existent "Green Deal energy saving schemes" including boiler and window replacement, loft insulation, and home improvement grants.
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Reacting to a record number of complaints submitted by TPS subscribers, ICO officials found that most of the calls were made between August 2019 and March 2020 and that the Glasgow firm also disguised phone numbers and used false trading names – all of which is illegal.
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In a statement confirming the £150,000 fine, Ken Macdonald, head of ICO Regions, said: "Calls about Green Deal schemes can be a real problem as people often believe they are legitimate but, thanks to the complaints made by the public, we've been able to take action.
"Dial A Deal were breaking the law on a number of fronts. Not only were they making calls to people without their permission, they were also hiding their identity using false names and spoof numbers."
[4]Leaked Guntrader firearms data file shared. Worst case scenario? Criminals plot UK gun owners' home addresses in Google Earth
[5]Sueball over breach of more than 5 million payment cards at Dixons Carphone hit for six
[6]Nuisance call-blocking firm fined £170,000 for making almost 200,000 nuisance calls
[7]This is the data watchdog! Surrender your Matt Hancock smoochy-kiss pics right now!
In its ruling
[8]PDF
, the ICO detailed the events that led up to the investigation, correspondence it had with company directors, and set out the breaches of UK data law.On 25 November 2020, the ruling reports, the ICO was advised that DialADeal had ceased trading.
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In a twist, Scotland's Daily Record newspaper [10]revealed the identity of one of those behind DDSL as a colourful social media "influencer" who routinely "portrays herself living a life of luxury" with an office in a "rundown business unit in the east end of Glasgow."
Last month, a Brighton-based firm that sells nuisance call-blocking systems found itself being [11]chewed out by watchdog for, ironically, cold calling almost 200,000 people registered with the TPS.
And in a break from run-of-the-mill investigative work, in July officers from the ICO [12]searched two homes in Southern England in connection with pictures of former health secretary Matt Hancock kissing a colleague that appeared in a Brit tabloid newspaper. ®
Get our [13]Tech Resources
[1] 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=2YTc4YPr5uDxoUdGZJPb@9AAAAEU&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[2] 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=44YTc4YPr5uDxoUdGZJPb@9AAAAEU&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
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[4] https://www.theregister.com/2021/08/31/guntrader_breach_csv_danger/
[5] https://www.theregister.com/2021/08/04/carphone_dixons_2018_breach_lawsuit_strikeout/
[6] https://www.theregister.com/2021/08/02/ico_nuisance_call_ycsl/
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2021/07/15/ico_matt_hancock_raids/
[8] https://ico.org.uk/media/action-weve-taken/mpns/4017878/dialadeal-scotland-ltd-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=44YTc4YPr5uDxoUdGZJPb@9AAAAEU&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[10] https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/scots-influencer-unmasked-fraudster-behind-24911416
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2021/08/02/ico_nuisance_call_ycsl/
[12] https://www.theregister.com/2021/07/15/ico_matt_hancock_raids/
[13] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
I’m sure this will stop them.
After all, what could a company that spoofs phone numbers and uses false trading names to conduct illegal activity possibly do to get back up and running?
Re: I’m sure this will stop them.
Directors can now be jailed. They have to go through the motions first.
How do you find them?
I am on the TPS list, and still get a lot of green deal, insulation fitting and oven cleaning calls, although the latter seems to have dropped off recently. However, since the caller ID number is spoofed and any company name they give is likely to be false too, how do you know who to complain about to the ICO?
The obvious fraud ones - "I'm calling from BT/Microsoft..." I normally respond to with "[Do you sleep well at night knowing| Does your mother know] you spend your days [committing fraud | as a petty criminal]". They normally hang up.
I really wonder a) how much they make and b) is it enough to cover the fine and still make it worthwhile. They must be getting a return for their "investment"
is it enough to cover the fine
Fines and financial liabilities are nothing more than a theoretical inconvenience if you have a private limited company or limited liability partnership that can be shut down at a moment's notice.
If a company doesn't have enough money to pay the fine (or any other debt), then the directors aren't liable, and the liability of the shareholders is strictly limited to the share capital if they haven't paid it into the company already - which is rarely more than a couple of quid or so.
You will see people on this forum and elsewhere jumping up and down saying that the directors become liable if it can be proved in court that they mismanaged the company, but this never happens. Extensive lobbying by directors of large companies over many years has made that almost impossible, otherwise they would risk being jailed for the sort of corporate scandals that frequently appear on the front pages of newspapers.
Peanuts
£150K for 500K calls is 30p per call. That's not a lot -- I'm sure they paid the caller staff more than that per call. Spam callers should be fined a lot more, otherwise fines are just part of the budgeted expenses.
Re: Peanuts
Eh, I wouldn't be so sure about that, considering how little they probably pay their call centre workers, and how much they pressure them to make N calls per hour. It could come pretty close to even, either way.
Usual dissolve company start a new one
32. On 4 June 2020, the Commissioner applied to Companies House for disclosure of the home addresses of the two directors of DialADeal.
On 9th June a new company SIMPLE LEAD LTD was incorporated by, yes you've guessed it, the same two directors at the same address...
“Hi, I’m Dave, you local energy adviser”
“Sure you are…” click.
To avoid these
Two options
If you have a landline get a phone with bt call guardian or similar service, only numbers in your phones address book will get straight through, everyone else has to identify themselves and most call scams won’t.
On a mobile block all unknown numbers calling - iPhone this is built in, I think you need an app for Android. My phone sends all unknown / withheld numbers straight to voicemail. If it important they will leave a message.
influencer
Pictured in front of the shreddies aisle or in a small kitchen in your princess dress while you're waiting for the cuppa to brew probably, it's just so amazing I can't look away at how british it is