Reporting phishing and harassment

washedupandout

So following a car accident on 8th June and whilst still hospitalised I was having to take multiple phone calls from my insurance company and various affiliates thereof which in itself was distressing. I then started receiving calls from a very insistent gentleman with an accent I found difficult to understand in part due to deafness due to airbag deployment and no doubt my age. He gave the impression that he was my insurance company and kept giving me time limits to produce photos of my car. 

Eventually I had to get a visitor to take his  call who ascertained he was phishing for a no win no fee company. He was requested to stop calling and submit in writing only. 

Upon returning home I have been shocked to see that at one point he was calling home and mobile number every minute!

I then further discovered that my details have obviously been sold on as my in box has exploded overnight with these types of call as well as my diesel car claim companies and gambling sites last count over 100 in 7 days.

Firstly can I assume this will have been my insurance company and if legal how can I stop this and to whom can I make a formal complaint for harassment.
This is causing me distress at a time when we have suffered injuries and would appreciate time to recover 

eddddy

You can ask the insurance company and/or the "no win no fee company" if your details were passed on by your insurance company. But TBH, it's unlikely that your insurer would use a 'rogue company'.

Presumably, your car was taken to a garage by a recovery company.

Anecdotally, people suggest that it's 'dodgy' recovery companies and/or 'dodgy' garages that sell your details to claims companies.


But there are also a few examples of rogue insurance company employees selling customer data...
See: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3064577/Arrests-LV-calls-police-claims-victims-details-sold.html

And also a few examples of rogue police officers selling accident victim data...
See: https://www.legalfutures.co.uk/latest-news/policeman-jailed-selling-crash-data-claims-firm-sold-law-firms

FlameCloud

Don’t forget some fire services regularly tip off companies after a recovery as well

DullGreyGuy

Everyone and their mother has been involved in selling details to ambulance chasers or promoting them in some other ways at some point. Remember the fuss kicked up years ago where med-mal companies were giving free appointment cards to GPs etc to use with patients so the front said you were having your checkup post op on Tuesday and the back offered to get you £10,000 for medical negligence. 

These days its often the claimant themselves thats done it because accident management companies put Ads on Google and people search for their insurer's telephone number on Google and rather than clicking the 3rd link for Direct Line they click the first one for Claims Direct Line and then proceed to give that company (unassociated with DLG) all their details who then do what their site's T&Cs says they will and pass sell it on to interested companies. 

Unless you have warned each of the companies that you are finding their behaviour distressing its fairly unlikely that a series of emails or missed calls on a phone you werent even monitoring could be reasonably considered as harassment. Once you have told them this then it becomes easier.

dunstonh

Are you sure that this harrassing agent has anything to do with the claim?     People frequently get cold calling spammers saying that you have recently been in an accident despite not being so.   If they do thousands or tens of thousands of calls, then a small proportion will get lucky on the timing.