Claims company fined £220,000 under nuisance call rules
05/08/2015
A claims company making nuisance calls has been fined £220,000 under new government rules.
The Hearing Clinic has been fined for making millions of nuisance calls after hundreds of people complained about receiving calls regarding hearing loss claims. Many of the people called had subscribed to the Telephone Preference Service (TPS), indicating that they did not want to receive unsolicited calls.
They are the first company to be fined under the new Claims Management Regulator after the government changed the rules in December to allow the industry’s watchdog to issue fines. This was after more than 170,000 complaints were made to the Information Commissioners Office about nuisance calls and text messages.
Claims Management Regulator Kevin Rousell said:
"Companies should be in no doubt that if they break the rules, then we won't hesitate to fine them, in addition to the tough action we already take."
When dealing with cold callers, the BBC advises:
Do:
• Ask cold callers to remove your information from their records
• Find out caller's number from a landline by dialling 1471 after the call
• Check with your phone company if you can be made ex-directory
Don't:
• Give away personal or financial information, even if callers claim to be from a company you know
• Lose your temper. Be firm and hang up if the caller refuses to go away
• Call back phone numbers left on your voicemail, or reply to text messages you don't recognise
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