A total of five companies from London and West Sussex have been fined a total of £405,000 by the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) for deliberately targeting the elderly and vulnerable people with calls about insurance for their white goods.
Each of the companies provided insurance policies for electric appliances and were found to marketing their products to those signed up with the Telephone Preference Service (TPS) – a register for those who do not want to receive marketing calls and if a number is registered with the TPS, organisations are legally required – by the Privacy and Electronic (EC Directive) Regulations 2003 – to refrain from calling it.
UK Platinum Home Care Services, one of the companies fined was found to have made more than 412,000 calls to individuals registered with TPS between March and September 2020.
The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) said most of the companies deliberately targeted older people with calls about insuring televisions, washing machines and fridges after buying their details from third parties.
John Edwards, the information commissioner, said: ‘These are unlawful predatory marketing calls that were targeted at some of the most vulnerable members of our society and driven purely by financial gain.
‘It is clear from the complaints we received that people felt frightened and distressed by the aggressive tactics of these companies, sometimes giving their financial details just so they could hang up the phone. This is unacceptable and clearly exploitative.
‘It is only right that we take tough and prompt action to punish those companies responsible using our full powers.
‘Companies making similar nuisance calls and causing harm to people can expect a strong response from my office. I encourage anyone who is being pestered by other rogue operators, or knows a family member or friend who is, to report them to the ICO and we will step in to protect the public from these invasive calls.’
The Telephone Preference Service (TPS) is the UK’s only official ‘Do Not Call’ register for landlines and Mobile numbers. It allows people and businesses to opt out of unsolicited live sales and marketing calls and you can register here.
You can register your mobile number on the TPS register – Simply text “TPS” and your email address to 85095 from your mobile phone. There is no charge to send a message or to receive confirmation from this number.
