Government crackdown launched to end scourge of cold callers
MILLIONS of Britons will be spared the misery of being plagued by cold call salesmen in the biggest crackdown on the menace yet.
The proposals will focus on companies which offer financial products and utility companies which use third party lists to target consumers, says the Government.
Powers to impose hefty fines will be granted. Nuisance callers such as PPI firms which gather information from unsolicited calls or texts and make spurious claims over payment protection insurance face fines up to 20 per cent of turnover.
The Nuisance Calls Action Plan, launched by the Department of Culture, has been developed with the help of the Information Commissioner’s office, Ofcom and consumer rights champion Which?
Nuisance calls must stop. At best they are an irritation and an unwanted intrusion. At worst they cause real distress and fear
The problem is so great that 56 per cent of people now hesitate before answering their home phone, says Which? Last year more than 120,000 successful complaints about marketing calls were made from April to November.
Culture Secretary Maria Miller said last night: “Nuisance calls must stop. At best they are an irritation and an unwanted intrusion. At worst they cause real distress and fear, particularly to the elderly or housebound. People need to feel safe and secure in their homes. The rules are clear; people have the right to choose not to receive unsolicited marketing calls.”
Currently, householders can sign up to the Telephone Preference Service to block calls at home they have not agreed to but Which? says consent is often given inadvertently, when making online purchases or filling in questionnaires.
An Ofcom survey last year found 82 per cent of people received at least one uninvited call over four weeks, 38 per cent of them “live” marketing, 34 per cent silent and 14 per cent recorded sales calls.
Half of all cold calls, 53 per cent, is from people selling financial products, 33 per cent from accident claims companies, 27 per cent are silent and 27 per cent from firms selling mobile phones, utilities and double glazing.
Last night mobile phone company TalkTalk announced it was the only internet service provider to offer free call barring.
Last year, Ofcom named it as one of the country’s top three offenders, and fined it £750,000 for making abandoned and silent calls.
Which? chief Richard Lloyd said: “This is a victory for the 110,000 people who backed our campaign to call time on nuisance calls.”
