HELP: address and mobile details have been sold

shaquk

Hi, in the past few months i have been getting a big number of calls from PPI reclaim companies, land bank companies and other companies who are trying to sell me products or their services. I am ex-registry and dont give out my mobile no or home address lightly. I started getting these calls though after i renewed my home insurance from one of those comparison sites (may be thats just a co-incidence but i never used to get calls on my mobile before that). I used the usual suspects (Moneysupermarket.com, uswitch.com, confused.com, gocompare.com) and ended up getting a Halifax insurance from moneysupermarket.com.
I have been registered with all those sits before, and i never got any phone calls like that before. And i am quite sure i always tick the correct boxes when it asks for permission to let third parties call me or email me or send me communication. However, each of those companies calling me know my full name, where i live and what my mobile no is. This is quite worrying to me. I can get rid of those callers but i am more worried about my details being sold to third parties willynilly. How can i get my address and mobile off those callers. Can i call my mobile phone operator and get those calls blocked? i do get calls from recruitment agents with blocked numbers and i dont want them to be barred. How do i remove my address from any sold lists? And stop whoever sold my details from selling it again?

Does anybody know if any of these sites is selling addresses/phone numbers now? Also, could it be Halifax itself who i got Home Insurance with? My mortgage has been with them for 3 years and i never got a nuicance phone call before..

Browntoa

its often random diallers , once you answer a call it shows the line is active , a lot of these calls originate from abroad and there is very little you can do to stop them

ex.astris

In terms of the calls you are receiving, I would definitely recommend adding all your phone numbers to the Telephone Preference Service at http://www.mpsonline.org.uk/tps/. This service 'blacklists' your number to marketers - if they still call you then you can report them to the Information Commissioner's Office.
More details are on the page, but it works for landlines and mobiles and will hopefully stem the flow of calls you are getting. It can take 3-4 weeks to notice any change though.

Lip_Stick

Browntoa wrote: »

its often random diallers , once you answer a call it shows the line is active , a lot of these calls originate from abroad and there is very little you can do to stop them

It's not going to be a random dialler if details like the OP's name and address are used, is it?

OP, I heard that confused.com (I think) sold details to 3rd parties. I remember there being a complaint from someone else. I also remember there being a tick box when I went through the site to finalise my choice. Could be that you missed it, or could be that they're being a bit cheeky. Ask to be taken off the database of anyone who phones you who you don't want to deal with.

4743hudsonj

As one poster said TPS may help, but if you have accidentally left one of these boxes unticked etc, then that wont help at all as they will have your "permission" to call.

shaquk

Thanks guys! I was afraid iw ont be able to do anything but to ask each and everybody who calls me to take me off their database. I am usually quite careful and always look for the tick box to protect my data and not to get it passed down to third parties. Well, I must have missed it once. I think i am gonna get a pay as you go no for these sites from now on and not use my personal mobile.

david39

The cold-callers to which the OP refers are chancers trying to get info from people to establish whether they can sell a variety of services (mainly IVAs or high-interest loans). Sometimes "the sell" in the end is done by other means than the phone.

They want to engage you in conversation so that they can get that info - the more you talk to them, the more they will ring you. The more angry you get, the more they will wind you up so that you keep talking. They love you to call them back and/or talk to a "supervisor" - that's the guy sitting next to them to whom you will confirm lots of details on the promise that he will take you off the list - he needs all those details to make sure that he eliminates the correct name!

The only way to stop the calls is to lift the receiver, let him start speaking, and put the phone down without comment. That's the only type of call that's a waste of time to them, and eventually the call rate will reduce and disappear. You need to actually pick the call up - otherwise they assume you are out and will start ringing at night.

TPS, OFCOM and any other body are of no use - the calls originate from outside the UK (despite it sometimes looking on caller ID that it is a UK number) and so are outside UK jurisdiction.

These calls must easily be identifiable by the telephone service providers - what needs to be done is for government to act to make the companies filter them so they don't reach us. That would be quite difficult to enact in law but, given enough pressure from the thousands of sufferers who contacted this board alone, it should be practicable.

fluffnutter

Comparison websites are famed for selling details. I would be very confident that this is where your number has come from. Register your mobile with the TPS, don't include it in websites in future and tell anyone who calls that you've registered with TPS and they must remove you from their lists. It will dry up eventually.

david39

I don't remember being asked for my phone number on a comparison website, and I've filled in plenty.

You don't get to the phone number part until you move on to the forms with the individual company you have chosen.

I read somewhere, a little while ago, that O2 sell phone numbers on to an american company who then sell them on worldwide but even that may be an urban myth.

I suspect the OP has passed it on to some commercial organisation whose employees garner them all together, with names and addresses, and then sell them on without their employers knowing.