MSE News: PPI text spammers face £250,000 fine

Caddyman

I do get spam texts occasionally and they are immediately deleted after I've sworn at my 'phone for no reason other than I'm annoyed!

Thing is, I will never understand why anyone would respond to one of these types of texts anyway. Are some people really that gullible?

I suppose one thing is, surely spammers must have to pay to text spam? But I'm assuming they make so much money out of those individuals that do respond, that it can't matter to them too much anyway.

NeverInDebt

Trouble is any fine must hit these hard and act as a deterrent far to much fines still make it worth while for these parasites to operate

Intasun32

It make you wonder why the ICO have never acted against the bandits that send unsolicited chargeable texts, even after tens of thousands of compaints!

They do not consider this type of mobile phone theft a crime. It is the same as normal spam, which they have fined the senders in this case, only the receiver of the text pays!!!!

Why do they, the ICO, OFCOM, the networks and all the other 'authorities' refuse to act?

orrery

Caddyman wrote: »

I suppose one thing is, surely spammers must have to pay to text spam?

They buy a pay-as-you-go SIM with an unlimited text deal. This goes into a phone connected to a PC running a piece of bulk text software. They then send a massive number of texts until the phone company spots what is going on and disconnects the number. They then start again.

If this is done from a laptop in a car, then they can never be located. However, there must be a trail of 'money' to follow that leads to the guilt parties.

Caddyman

orrery wrote: »

They buy a pay-as-you-go SIM with an unlimited text deal. This goes into a phone connected to a PC running a piece of bulk text software. They then send a massive number of texts until the phone company spots what is going on and disconnects the number. They then start again.

If this is done from a laptop in a car, then they can never be located. However, there must be a trail of 'money' to follow that leads to the guilt parties.

Excellent explanation, thank you. I wasn't aware this is how it was done. Perhaps one way of combatting the issue would be to implement the same type of law as the South African Government brought in, in 2003, the Regulation of Interception of Communications and Provision of Communication-Related Information Act (RICA) where I believe every sim card used has to be registered by law. However, I would forsee privacy issue problems, so I guess it would be a non starter in the UK.

orrery

Caddyman wrote: »

Perhaps one way of combatting the issue would be to .....

Or make the company buying the 'sales leads' generated by the text spamming responsible, unless they can show that they were responsible in checking how the leads were generated.

I tried responding to the texts and got calls from all sorts of companies. I then asked them to take my number off their lists. None could as, they explained, it wasn't their list - they just bought them from a "legitimate marketing company". Challenging these people revealed that they didn't know and didn't care where the leads came from.

redux

Despite the PR from the Information Commisioner's Office, they are apparently either too busy or just can't be bothered to reply to reports on their website for well over a month. Or longer. No reply yet to a complaint I reported in late August.

chanz4

Can see it next MSE, Compensation for texts

orrery

redux wrote: »

Despite the PR from the Information Commisioner's Office, they are apparently either too busy or just can't be bothered to reply to reports on their website for well over a month.

I think it needs to said: The ICO are simply failing to perform at even a basic level. It is about time that the government stepped in to sort them out.
I had dialogue with them a good while ago, when I was following up the text spam to encourage the sender to contact me, then taking notes of the companies and telephone numbers that called me back. All this was put into formal complaints to the ICO, but there was simply no engagement from them - no evidence whatsoever that anyone had even looked at what I sent in.