PI firm nicked for pretexting

A private investigation firm has pleaded guilty to obtaining and selling personal information on customers from the Department for Work and Pensions. The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) said it had successfully prosecuted Infofind for illegally "blagging" the personal details of over 250 individuals from the department …

[Silas]

I'm surprised they used the DWP

Seeing as they could have just contacted the DVLA pretending to be private landowners and got the address details of any car owned by the people they were searching for.

Worrying that the DWP also falls for the oldest piece of social engineering in the book, though not really a surprise.

Yet the Government say that the NIR won't be compromised in this exact same way. Hence I'm not going to be on the NIR.

[Campbell]

What the......

mmmmmm... 3grand fine eh? What's the point, how much did they make from selling the info?

A paltry £3,200, probably loose change to these gusy.

£320,000 fine and they won't do it again. Guaranteed!!

[Anonymous Coward]

RE: What the...

"mmmmmm... 3grand fine eh? What's the point, how much did they make from selling the info?"

Probably not alot. Your asuming the DWP has any infomation in the first place :-)

[SImon Hobson]

That's not even a slap on the wrist !

44 offenses, £3,200

So only £72/offense - that's absolutely no deterrent at all.

[Anonymous Coward]

waste of time complaining

Having seen the Information Commissioner's office in NON action many times before ,having now seen this judgment it reinforces my opinion that it is a total waste of time having laws because there is nothing to oput this company off repeating the offence time and again.

Alan

[Edward Pearson]

Small fine, but...

Yeah, it was a small fine, but think about the £5000 in court costs. These people will not doubt have an eye kept on then after this, so they're likely to be back in court faster if they do it again, so £72 for the fine, and another £5000 for the costs,

[Chris]

I don't get it

I just don't get it. They were convicted of 44 counts, but they were only fined for 8 of those? What about the remaining 36 counts they were convicted of? A paltry 3600 pounds doesn't even come close to inferring the "serious" nature of the crimes.

[Anonymous Coward]

Less than £13 per person

It's really cheap: get this supposedly secure private information on more than 250 individuals, and pay fines totalling £3200. Well done the ICO for prosecuting, but there's not really much point when the penalties are outrageously low.

Can I deduce that the court thinks a £12 fine is a suitable penalty for fraudulently obtaining personal information about me from our government? If so I'd better make sure the government has as little personal information as possible about me - which is getting pretty difficult with all the new measures being implemented by New Labour.

SO, the courts no longer protect us or our freedoms (since a fine of £12 for each person whose information is stolen is no protection at all). Of course that's probably what Tony and his cronies want - if the courts were to protect our freedoms the government would have a lot more trouble with adverse decisions from judicial reviews.