Cold call bosses could be forced to cough up under new rules The UK government is planning to make company directors personally liable for nuisance calls – two years after it first promised the powers to the data protection watchdog. At the moment, the Information Commissioner's Office can only hand out fines to companies that make spam marketing calls. Under the new plan, announced …
Why put it in the PECR? Surely any director that has committed fraud not covered by criminal law (pilfering pensions etc..) should also be made to be liable after closing a company to avoid returning money.
Also, the director (who we know are scumbags anyway) will transfer wealth to a family member and declare bankruptcy. They are happy to be disqualified as a director so it shouldn't really bother them.
"Remember that simply putting up someone else as a front is an offence that can carry a gaol sentence."
Snigger. First you have to prove it in court. "Just because the new company is owned by my wife and is renting the same office as my old outfit, doesn't mean I have any involvement in the running of the new company, Your Honour."
And of course the authorities have to have enough resources to investigate all these shonks. In Australia a royal commission is uncovering all kinds of horrors in the banking and superannuation industries, and the government have cut $20 million out of the regulator's funds in the latest budget.
Cheese straws don't suck.
But they go very soggy when dipped in the pulp of a director's brain.
Who dips cheese straws? You want celery, sticks of carrot, a nice spicy tortilla or those nasty biscuits that come with (plastic)cheese dip.
Snacking on a lot of Directors lately? It can be known to cause something like Mad Cows disease you know....
- Soylent Green Corp. Health Advisory.
This post has been deleted by its author
"Cheese straws don't suck."
A Bristol restaurant is replacing one-use plastic straws with pasta ones.
I can’t help feeling that tougher sanctions on cold calling companies (and the people behind them), while always welcome is kind of missing the point.
What we need are sanctions against companies who seek to *benefit* from the cold-calling, which is to say the ones who commission, pay for, and who’s products and services are promoted by cold-calling. Quite apart from anything else it gives a much easier, more effective recourse against cold-calling originated from overseas. The call centre may be in India but, if it’s promoting/selling something in the UK then there has to be a traceable entity taking the money and supplying the goods and services...
"What we need are sanctions against companies who seek to *benefit* from the cold-calling, which is to say the ones who commission, pay for, and who’s products and services are promoted by cold-calling"
Someone did that to some PPI lawyers. They got fed up of cold callers, and so they played along until they found out the name of the solicitors they were acting on behalf of, and filed a small claims summons against them for the maximum claimable amount. The solicitors settled just before the case was called, if I remember correctly (and their letter of complaint is freely available somewhere online).
Isn't that technically there anyway?
There is a bit of law, dating from the 1870s, that is still relevant today. It's called "Agency Law" - it essentially means that a company is responsible for the action of its agents.
The ICO has previously found in my favour when a UK based financial services company has used an opaque marketing company based outside the UK to try and sell me sub-prime credit card.
The calls come from abroad from different (random?) phone numbers
A good start would be severe restrictions on who can set the number displayed by CLI and what numbers they can set it to.
Just about the only non-people (ie organisations) who should be able to withhold it should be: child line, samaritans & the clap clinic.
"A good start would be severe restrictions on who can set the number displayed by CLI and what numbers they can set it to.
All the cold calls I get have a CLI of "international". It appears that the call centre - obviously staffed in the UK - is relaying through another country. Annoying as I have international friends who occasionally ring me.
Another commentard has made the apparently sensible suggestion - fine the companies who act on the leads. All the calls I get would entail a UK company providing the touted service - usually oven cleaning or double-glazing.
All the cold calls I get have a CLI of "international". It appears that the call centre - obviously staffed in the UK - is relaying through another country.
I am sure you are aware that there are call centers in India that are staffed with people trained to speak with a given accent. It is usually done for debt collection as it was seen that talking as the neighbour next door helps in that regard, but may be done for other kind of business too.
This is a consultation
As in, "we're thinking we'll get round to doing something, eventually, when we've asked all the lobby groups for permission." Despite the fact that it was supposed to happen two years ago.
In other words,- total bollocks.
This is not an announcement of action. It just has been worded to sound like an announcement of action. It's actually an announcement of inaction They've just been waiting for some more long grass to grow so that they have somewhere to kick it.
And that's if a change of government doesn't scupper the whole thing before then.
Do you seriously think that a 'Momentum' Government will make any difference?
Apart from going cap in hand to the IMF for a few Trillion quid it won't IMHO.
Jat look at what is happening in Italy and you will get a good idea about what a Momentum Government will look like unless, all the non JC supporting MP's get deselected before the next election...
No chance of them getting in in my consituency even with a 'foot in the mouth' Government Minister as the sitting MP.
"Jat look at what is happening in Italy and you will get a good idea about what a Momentum Government will look like [...]"
The proposed Italian coalition seems to be a populist National Socialist rerun wanting out of the EU. Many of the Tory Party's right-wingers would feel at home in that.
Populists promise everything to the voters - with little chance of delivering anything but chaos.
I actually had one this morning from a lady working for "Clear Eco Systems" wanting to look at my inverter. Yes she was aware of GDPR but since she claimed it was all free and they weren't selling anything...you get the idea.
So please set your auto dialers to 01484442048 and anything associated.
I actually had one this morning from a lady working for "Clear Eco Systems" wanting to look at my inverter.
Dunno, sounds like a euphemism to me. Are you absolutely sure you weren't being chatted up, or did she ask for your credit card for the next ten minutes...?
I'd like some Pram please. Chest of Drawers?
There could be the unintended consequence that companies start using local gentlemen of the road as directors. "Excuse me sir, would you like this free crate of cider? Just sign here... excellent!"
Do Companies House get perturbed if home addresses on the forms refer to particular cardboard boxes in the business's loading bay?
all that JUNK mail addresed to 'The Householder....'
Hey Virgin Media, I'm looking at you. You still keep on sending it despite me diligently collecting it and putting it in a very large envelope and posting it back to you without a stamp and marking the contents 'F*** O**'.
Next time, Maybe I'll coat the insides with some of next door's dog turds.
"all that JUNK mail addresed to 'The Householder....'
Hey Virgin Media, I'm looking at you."
Back when the senior networks guys used to post in the usenet support groups, I once asked about that. He said it was cheaper to contract a mail drop by area than to pay to have their existing customers excluded. That was probably when they were still called Blueyonder.
Be careful what you wish for. Imagine if the defendant is ready to argue and deliberate on each and every count and demands a formal reading on each one. They could tie the legal system up for a long time that way. And that's assuming they can catch the person responsible before he absconds to a non-extraditing country.
"I wonder if I can take Laithwaites Wine to task for sending me wine offers after I've told them several times I am no longer interested?"
After a long while Everest seem to have started sending letterbox litter to me - or at least having the Royal Mail deliver them to all local addresses. I'm considering ringing them to send a representative along - who will then be presented with the unwanted mail I wish to return. This, if organised nationwide, would be an effective deterrent as they wouldn't be able to distinguish real leads from complaints.
Because it's simply a lot cheaper to send to everyone indiscriminately than to pay the time and money to winnow things out. Plus they'll probably welcome mail piles since they could just chuck the lot to the Complaints Department. Anything truly serious will require a personal handout so will get filtered that way.
While I agree with following the Money, as suggested by Jonathon Green, another effective route would be to follow the actually call back towards the offending company. In this way if the call centre operator does not pay, or cannot be located, liability passes to the line provider who delivered the call to the victim. This would make BT responsible in most cases, I guess. That would be appropriate and would eliminate most cold calls pretty rapidly, I think.
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