Page 1 of 2
Posted: Sat Nov 21, 2015 8:30 am
by lifenoteasy
People might be interested in this -
https://ico.org.uk/about-the-ico/news-a ... nce-calls/
An IVA lead generation company has been fined £120k for commissioning unsolicited (3 million in 2 months alone) linked to IVA's.
2 things to note:
1. They were sending out a message stating that up to 70% of debts could be written off which these days by itself is misleading as a headline figure
2. They got fined because they commissioned the calls - not because they made them. That means that ultimately any IVA company that actively promotes the selling of IVA's this way without fully checking how they are being made can be held liable.
It is not enough to say it is not our fault that a third party did it this way.
Posted: Sat Nov 21, 2015 8:41 am
by kallis3
I tend to get texts telling me that - I just delete them.
Posted: Sat Nov 21, 2015 9:01 am
by lifenoteasy
Where I have a number it gets blocked but I'm glad these are starting to get stopped at source.
A similar company got fined £200k back in October 2015.
Posted: Sat Nov 21, 2015 9:44 am
by kallis3
I block them as well - problem is that they have so many numbers and on your phone they tend to show up as 'Out of Area', 'Private Caller' and numbers that mean nothing!!
Posted: Mon Nov 23, 2015 10:09 am
by Lisa Thomas
Interesting to hear - thanks LNE
Posted: Mon Nov 23, 2015 10:17 am
by lifenoteasy
Additionally they have just announced that over 1000 companies are being contacted around how they deal with this.
The ones that don't think they have to respond or ignore the contact will be in for a shock.
Posted: Mon Nov 23, 2015 1:41 pm
by lifenoteasy
Another PPI claims firm was fined £80k it has been announced:
https://ico.org.uk/about-the-ico/news-a ... pam-texts/
Apparently another 2 companies will be fined £170k between them this week.
Posted: Mon Nov 23, 2015 1:42 pm
by kallis3
Good - it's about time these were dealt with and (hopefully!) got rid of!!
Posted: Mon Nov 23, 2015 4:19 pm
by Adam Davies
Hi
Hats off to the ICO for dealing with this
A few years ago I had an overseas call centre cold calling people and stating that they were from IVA.co.uk, infuriating, time consuming in dealing with complaints and at the time little that I could do about it.
Regards
Posted: Wed Nov 25, 2015 12:15 pm
by lifenoteasy
Posted: Wed Nov 25, 2015 2:09 pm
by Michael Peoples
Good to see these fines being implemented but I wonder if the firms will remain around long enough to pay them. Maybe they will just pop up under a new guise and start all over again.
Posted: Wed Nov 25, 2015 2:14 pm
by lifenoteasy
The ico does not issue a fine without taking account of the financial stability of a private company.
They can try and pop up under a new guise but as they will have to still register with the ICO this will trigger alarms leading to private prosecution of directors which leads to a criminal record.
Posted: Wed Nov 25, 2015 2:25 pm
by Michael Peoples
Very good. Nice to learn things and so thanks for the info.
Posted: Thu Nov 26, 2015 12:13 am
by TheMatrix
Had a phone call who referred to a IVA I had that completed in 2011 recently.
Was livid, obviously using a very old record from a offline version of the insolvency register. said they had the right to use this and further data mine the lists to get my address and mobile from other means.
Would not tell me who they were when I asked either.
Posted: Thu Nov 26, 2015 7:39 am
by lifenoteasy
The fact they would not say who they were shows they know they are on dodgy ground.
When information is used it has to be relevant, not excessive and intended for the purpose that it was obtained.
Additionally the fines clearly demonstrate that to be contacted you have to have a legal basis or that someone had opted in to be called.
Your iva is no longer relevant and even google would probably support this as part of the "right to be forgotten".