A company that offered a nuisance call blocking service has itself been fined by the privacy watchdog for making “bullying and aggressive” telephone calls.
Bournemouth-based Point One Marketing, trading as Stop the Calls, marketed a call-blocking device for phones as well as a service removing people’s details from a cold-call database.
But following hundreds of complaints, the Information Commissioner’s Office found the company (previously known as Conservo Digital Ltd) had marketed the services through “aggressive cold calling” and fined it £50,000.
Members of the public reported the company employed high-pressure sales tactics and said its salespeople had implied they were operating an official service to stop nuisance calls.
Some complainants reported bullying calls and salespeople shouting at them when they demanded not to be called again. One reported their mother being persuaded to give her credit card details, despite it being obvious that she suffered from dementia.
The information commissioner found the company had breached the privacy and electronic communication regulations, which govern marketing calls. It had phoned people registered with the Telephone Preference Service, made repeated calls, sometimes several on the same day, and ignored requests by people to stop the calls.
The commissioner’s head of enforcement, Stephen Eckersley, said: “This company lacked integrity. They tried to sell a product that they claimed would stop nuisance calls, knowing full well they were responsible for so many such calls themselves. The fact that they operated in what appears to have been such a bullying, aggressive way only makes matters worse.”
He urged members of the public receiving nuisance calls from other offending companies to report them via the ICO website “and we can act as we have here”.
In April changes to the law came into force making it easier for firms that plague consumers with nuisance calls and texts to be hit with much bigger fines of up to £500,000.
Richard Lloyd, executive director of the consumer group Which? said: “Nuisance calls aren’t just annoying, they can intimidate people too, so regulators must continue to slap down firms that treat cold-calling rules with disdain.
“We would urge consumers to report all nuisance calls and texts to help regulators go after those flouting the regulations. We also want to see senior executives personally held to account if their company makes unlawful calls.”
Which? launched its Calling Time on Nuisance Calls campaign after finding 83% of people had received a nuisance call on their landline in the previous month. Eight in 10 people found these calls an annoying interruption, while a third felt intimidated by them.
