Pension cold-calling financial services biz cops largest ever fine from UK data watchdog
- Reference: 1638366638
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2021/12/01/ico_issues_biggest_ever_fine/
- Source link:
The fine, the largest ever issued by the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), follows a wider investigation into organisations dialling up unsuspecting folk to discuss financial arrangements for later in life.
The practice of [1]pension cold-calling was banned by the government in January 2019 to stop people being scammed of their life savings. Companies that make unsolicited calls could be be penalised up to £500,000.
[2]
In the course of its probing, the ICO said it found that [3]EB Associates (company registration [4]08093318 ) had asked lead generators to call members of the public on its behalf, with up to £750 paid for each referral.
[5]
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"Our priority is to protect people and we will always take robust action against companies operating illegally for their own financial gain," said the ICO's head of investigations, Andy Curry.
He pointed out that cold calls about pensions were banned to "protect people from scammers trying to chat them out of their retirement plans" and encouraged anyone affected by this to call the ICO.
[7]
The investigation discovered that EB Associates – which advises on mortgages, savings and investments, pensions, wills, and more – initiated a marketing campaign that involved the third party making 107,003 illegal pension cold calls between 11 January 2019 and 30 September.
[8]UK privacy watchdog may fine selfie-hoarding Clearview AI £17m... eventually, perhaps
[9]Boat biz breaches itself: Brittany Ferries 'fesses up to leaks caused by routine website update
[10]HIV Scotland fined £10,000 for BCC email blunder identifying names of virus-carriers' patient-advocates
[11]NHS Digital exposes hundreds of email addresses after BCC blunder copies in entire invite list to 'Let's talk cyber' event
[12]IKEA: Cameras were hidden in the ceiling above warehouse toilets for 'health and safety'
The ICO found EB Associates didn't have freely given, specific, and informed consent for the people that were cold-called.
"The ICO concluded that EB Associates contracted the lead generators to make the calls, knowing the cold calling ban was in place, in order to try and bypass the law," it added.
Despite the law being introduced in 2019 to reduce pension scams, the Financial Conduct Authority said it opened 24 per cent more cases (135) in 2020 versus the prior year. A total of £2.24m in pensions was [13]lost to scammers as of July this year. ®
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[1] https://www.gov.uk/government/news/pensions-cold-calling-banned
[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2YaeqPwNDmZYvnGTr9w39ewAAAMU&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[3] https://edwardbond.co.uk/our-services/
[4] https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/08093318
[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YaeqPwNDmZYvnGTr9w39ewAAAMU&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[6] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33YaeqPwNDmZYvnGTr9w39ewAAAMU&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[7] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YaeqPwNDmZYvnGTr9w39ewAAAMU&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2021/11/30/uk_clearview_fine/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2021/11/10/brittany_ferries/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2021/10/25/hiv_scotland_email_fail/
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2021/10/20/bcc_fail_nhs_digital/
[12] https://www.theregister.com/2021/10/01/ikea_spycam_scandal/
[13] https://www.fca.org.uk/news/press-releases/scammers-target-pension-pots
[14] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Re: £750 per referral, about £1 per person fine
The £750 would be the amount that EB would be paying the third parties if they provided a lead that resulted in a signup and a commission payment from whichever pension provider they got involved.
As for the conversion rate of cold calling - think 0.001% or less, hence the reason for outsourcing it to people who are paid such a high figure if they get a result.
The real cost is going to be felt by the pension providers if anyone was transferred to them without the correct advice having been given and followed.
Re: £750 per referral, about £1 per person fine
@talk_is_cheap yes, and shockingly that maths still works out in EB's favour.
EB are basically saying the _minimum_ a converted lead is worth to them is £750. You can bet they'll be getting more than £750 in commission from pension providers, if they're prepared to pay that to acquire customers in the first place.
To be told there is an additional cost (a fine in this case) of around £1.31 on top of that £750 is a drop in the ocean. It's not exactly a disincentive for people to not bother trying the same thing.
Fine
Given that the "fine" works out at around £1.31 per call, me thinks that they have used a wrong definition of fine:
Fine
You use fine to describe something that you admire and think is very good.
There is a fine view of the countryside.
This is a fine book.
These are some fine phone calls you made.
In seriousness, a fine these days just means a business cost that is non tax deductible.
Re: Fine
Absolutely. If they're paying £750 per client as a referral fee, you can get some indication of how valuable that lead is to EB Associates.
Answer: more than £1.31 per client!
The people who impose these fines don't really seem to grasp this extremely basic premise. It's a negligible "fee" for getting caught out.
Re: Fine
> a fine these days just means a business cost that is non tax deductible
True, but they are lobbying to make it tax deductible.
in other
financial news , EB associates just went bankrupt and ceased trading......
All of EB's assets have since been sold to FC associates founded 15 minutes ago..
I wish I wasn't as cynical...
Re: in other
FC associates? Aren't they part of the GD holding group?
Re: in other
They had £1m of cash in the bank as of 31st December 2020, up £421k from the previous year. I don't think a £140k fine is going to bankrupt them.
"[FCA] opened 24 per cent more cases (135) in 2020 versus the prior year"
Wow, a whole 135! All this on a budget of only £632.6m (2019-20)...
Madness
All the leaks, all the hacks, and £140,000 is the single largest fine the ICO have given? What the hell are they up to? How can that even be true?
Re: Madness
and when do they charge the maximum fine then?
£750 per referral, about £1 per person fine
See title.
750 x 107,000 = £80,250,000 (total for referrals)
140,000 / 107,000 = £1.31 (fine per referral)
Not every referral would result in a lead. But as long as the value of the lead was more than £1.31 to EB Associates they'd be happy.
Not bad financial sense on their part.