Millions of phone users were spared the irritation of an unwanted PPI call this week after authorities shut down one of the country’s biggest nuisance call operators.
A raid on a small office in Hove, West Sussex, took out a company responsible for making up to six million nuisance calls a day using automatic dialling machines. It has been reported that a cache of 90 million numbers was held by the unnamed company, which was deemed to be one of the worst offenders in Britain for unsolicited calls offering debt protection and refunds on payment protection insurance.
The raid was carried out by the Information Commissioner’s Office, which has been investigating the company since October. It is one of the three biggest originators of nuisance calls in the country, according to the ICO.
The directors of the company could face fines of up to £500,000 each if it is proved that their company caused distress.
The company made the calls from Hove, using servers in Maidenhead, Berkshire, but routed them overseas. That makes the location of the calls harder to trace and also ensures that they circumvent lists such as the Telephone Preference Service, which allow people to opt out of unwanted marketing calls.
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Machines operated by the company run through lists of millions of numbers and connected the call when someone picked up. That can lead to silent calls — when there is no one on the line — if the call is answered but does not connect to the pre-recorded message. Silent calls have proved distressing, particularly for older people,
The government has resisted demands to outlaw marketing calls but has lowered the threshold for the ICO and Ofcom, the telecoms regulator, to prosecute rogue operators. From next month the authorities will have more power to take unscrupulous companies to court.
It is, however, not only rogue outfits and double glazing companies that pepper users with unwanted calls. The new rules could soon result in large businesses having to clean up their act, with the ICO holding talks with Scottish Power, British Gas, EE and Sky after complaints from consumers.
The Hove raid could also yield details of how phone numbers are obtained and traded between businesses.