MSE News: £500,000 fines for cold-calling

asbokid

wantmemoney wrote: »

guys,
the TPS does not work because it is a voluntary scheme that criminals and unscrupulous business do not adhere to.
Ofcom and the ICO are little more than sham Authorities who will not act to protect the public.

Fair point well made. That seems to be the nature of all government "regulators".. they are there to fob off the consumer. they are a bogus layer of bureaucracy that does nothing but lay false hope and exhaust the consumer's energies while serving the interests of the very business they claim to regulate.

The current PPI cold calling nuisance

these are some of the numbers

08435406484 08435408392 08435408536 08435409159 08435440000

they are used by a company called Interact Solutions Limited
it's director is a certain Mr Greg Rudd

in 2005 he had a company called Allied Telecommunications Limited
it was involved in a multimillion pound premium rate fraud against the public.

Icstis (PhonepayPlus) fined the nineteen companies involved £1.9m.
needless to say the companies (if they had even existed) disappeared.

Allied went into liquidation without paying the fine.

to my knowledge Greg Rudd is not allowed premium rate numbers regulated by PhonepayPlus but he is allowed the lower revenue generating numbers regulated by Ofcom

084354*****

these numbers appear to be 'missed call' call back scams dressed up as marketing and the Networks are sharing in the revenue they are generating.

Where is Greg Rudd located in the country? How did his premium rate fraud work? I remember another scam, maybe it was this one, when Oftel/Ofcom/Otelo refused to identify the defrauding company, even though it acknowledged that the fraud had taken place! What a joke of a regulator!

Likewise for Ofgem, the gas regulator. Another waste of public money.

The Gas Regulator is well aware that one in six of the older style domestic gas meters are faulty and are over-reading our gas consumption by as much at 25%. A leaked report from National Grid revealed just that, but Ofgem refuses to disclose the contents of the report! It's apparently commercially privileged material! And yet there are still thousands, perhaps even millions of faulty gas meters in our homes, swindling us! Some regulator!

PasturesNew

It hurts me when I hear my octogenarian dad answering the phone to these calls; he's in great pain with incurable cancer and when the phone rings he struggles to answer it and is then often "trapped" on the call (odd politeness) until he can get rid of them.



I want to run through there, grab the phone and scream "WHY DON'T YOU F*** OFF YOU B***ARDING C****" before hanging up

asbokid

I_luv_cats wrote: »

I am too scared to press any keys like '9' (supposedly stops them calling you again) incase they can get access to your line and scam you!!

BT say they can't do anything, TPS only deal with voice calls, ICO looks like they don't want to know as an overwhelming array of information.

I always press ''9'' or whatever is requested in the automated message. Then I press ''mute'', then i leave the handset off the cradle, and waste the company's time, just as they wasted mine.

salthegal

asbokid wrote: »

I always press ''9'' or whatever is requested in the automated message. Then I press ''mute'', then i leave the handset off the cradle, and waste the company's time, just as they wasted mine.

That's exactly what I do. Coming back from a wkend away we have upto 10 blank messages on the answerphone with no number left. "Sorry we do not have the callers number to return the call". Obviously cold callers, very frustrating.

Heinz

asbokid wrote: »

I always press ''9'' or whatever is requested in the automated message. Then I press ''mute'', then i leave the handset off the cradle, and waste the company's time, just as they wasted mine.

They'll just hang up on a dead line. Leave the handset next to the TV or radio instead.

asbokid

Heinz wrote: »

They'll just hang up on a dead line. Leave the handset next to the TV or radio instead.

Why should they get to enjoy TV for nothing?! I paid the licence fee!

savemoney

Not been a customer of Scottish power for 4 years and in that 4 years I have had no communication with them until a few weeks ago.

Now I am getting marketing calls and raised a complaint with them via email. I got a letter the other day explaining the complaints procedure

Surely its not right that a company can still bombard you will calls when you been a customer in the past abet 4 years ago

This is my call logs from SP

Scottish_Power

Hi savemoney,

Hopefully by now you will have spoken with someone regarding your complaint, if this si not the case please e-mail me at [EMAIL="onlinecomplaints@scottishpower.com"]onlinecomplaints@scottishpower.com[/EMAIL] and I will make sure we sort this for you.

Kind regards

Graeme @ Scottishpower

richard734

My fave game is to politly ask them to repeat the company name, Their name, the contact address and phone number, and how they have this number to call.

I then tell them they have called a TPS test line and that this breach has been recorded and that this will be investigated. If I am feeling cruel I tell them that under the TPS regulations both the company that instigated the call and the individual that placed the call are liable for fines of up to £1,000 for each offence. Only do that to rude agents though.

Did that for a few weeks and hardly ever get any now, apart from the 'you have a virus' calls from offshore

maisie_debs

Just had E.ON knocking at the door even though I've got the Martin Lewis 'no cold callers' sign clearly on display, pointed to the sign and said we don't buy at the door and told him to take us off their list, I then came in and phoned E.ON and did the same (complain to E.ON). Hope thats the end of them now!