GDPR & Loan Company

Holy_Molly

Last month I had 5 different loan companies email me to congratulate me on being passed for a loan - I emailed all of them back saying I hadn't applied for a loan and to check their details. One was good enough to call me and confirm that although my email had been used the address for the potential customer wasn't mine.

Except one company (piggyback loan) have emailed me 9 times - 9 times! - since 7 September, "give us your the details of your Guarantor and the money is yours". And as I sat to write to their complaints department I've discovered they've attached a copy of the Loan Agreement, giving the name and address of the potential client and the amount to be borrowed.

I'm not a particularly jobs-worth sort of Molly, but jeez! Before I finish my letter can I ask the wise bods here if there is anything else I should cover in my letter more than the WTAF and stop emailing me?

Of course, I could write to the potential client and advise her to kick up a stink and report them, make a £'s claim for misuse of information, maybe cover some of the sum he/she needs.

Thanks!

glennstar

Molly,

What do you want to get from this situation? To get whomever it is to stop email you? The best option is to opt out of further marketing messages... and optionally report them to the ICO.

If, and it's entirely understandable, you want a little rain to fall into pinggybank's corporate existance then you should report them for the breach. You might also want to make Subject Access Request (this is now free and should be able to request via email) and see exactly what data they have about you. This will be inconvenient and expensive for them so well worth the effort.

I would stay away from the potential client if I were you. You don't know how this information has been mixed up and if they had a hand in it then they are guilty of committing fraud and the resulting outcome might not be what you think it should...

Holy_Molly

Thanks Glennstar - the suggestion of a contact to the other party was in jest (although I'd love to see someone in need get a little recompense). My company had a GDPR training session a few months ago and looking through my notes I see I've got the ICO details.

I had emailed this loan company every time I had an email saying "it's not me, stop emailing, take my email off your database" and on the last email I did say any more I'd report them for harassment. Getting the most recent one on a Friday afternoon was so frustrating - finding I had the details of the person in my emails is just so, so wrong. So I will be following this through. A little rain must fall!

Comms69

I don't think replying to what is no doubt an automatic and unmonitored inbox will cut it.

jimbo26

Please don't don't take this as a flippant response, but life is too short to worry about this, and write endless letters and posts. Delete the emails, if you can mark as spam so they go into a spam folder, if not set up a rule so they are moved to the bin before getting to your inbox. Then reclaim some of your life, grab a glass of wine and and spend it in the company of the ones who mean the most to you.

glennstar

jimbo26 wrote: »

Please don't don't take this as a flippant response, but life is too short to worry about this, and write endless letters and posts. Delete the emails, if you can mark as spam so they go into a spam folder, if not set up a rule so they are moved to the bin before getting to your inbox. Then reclaim some of your life, grab a glass of wine and and spend it in the company of the ones who mean the most to you.

Jimbo, I'd usually agree, however, the ICO works on volume of complaints to it is well worth reporting all emails (and especially forward spam SMS to 7726) as the ICO has been doing an excellent job of fining these guys, like this and this... and, well, everyone else by the look of it.

financegeek

annoying as it is, i doubt they're breaking any GDPR / data protection rules by emailing the address the client gave (even if it's incorrect)

rather than emailing them back, have you clicked the 'unsubscribe/ opt out' or similar link on the email? as someone else has said it's probably that the mailbox you're emailing is unmonitored.

Holy_Molly

Yeah, life is short however, having collated all the emails my Mexican buddy has sent me (10 in total) I have 6 times asked for my email to be removed from the database - it's not an unmonitored email as I have had responses back, notably from one saying he couldn't find my account - which isn't surprising as I don't blooming have one....

The procedures are in place to protect people from having their information sent off willy-nilly. Molly in London finds out that another Molly at such and such address is after a loan of such and such. It's the sort of thing the GDPRB was put in place for (the additional "B" is how it's referred to in my office, can you guess what it stands for)!

I guess I was hoping for someone to say "make sure you add blah blah blah to your letter" rather than stop being a jobsworth. But it's fine, ta.