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Blocking cold callers 'doesn’t work’

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  • Blocking cold callers 'doesn’t work’

    Blocking cold callers 'doesn’t work’

    A Government-regulated service intended to allow people to block cold callers is being ignored by some tele*marketing companies, an investigation has claimed.

    Despite thousands of complaints from the public being lodged with the Information Commissioner each month, no fines have been imposed on offending companies for at least 18 months. About 17.5 million phone numbers are registered with the Telephone Preference Service (TPS) — a scheme designed to prevent companies based in the UK from making unwanted cold calls.

    Industry rules state that telemarketing companies should cross-check databases to ensure that people who said they did not want to be contacted are left in peace.

    Mike Lordan, at Direct Marketing Association, which runs the TPS, told the BBC’s Panorama, which carried out the investigation, that some companies were ignoring the rules.

    He said: “We should be seeing enforcement against those companies who are persistently breaching legislation.” Richard Lloyd, from Which? magazine, told the programme: “Even if you have signed up to the telephone preference service now, it won’t make a jot of difference to those companies that are buying and selling that information you gave to that website maybe years ago.’’ Panorama found that Britons receive up to three billion marketing calls a year.

    One of its undercover reporters secretly filmed staff at Central Claims Group, based in Bury, Greater Manchester, allegedly tearing pages out of the telephone book and calling people at random.

    In a statement to Panorama, Central Claims Group said that it took its legal and regulatory obligations seriously and did not condone the lapses filmed by the BBC.

    It said the company had “informed all employees that using the ordinary phone directory or introducing themselves as anything other than Central Claims Group will be regarded as gross misconduct warranting summary dismissal”.

    A spokesman for the Information Commissioner’s office said that until this year, it did not have legal powers to act.

    Although it now has the power to impose fines of up to £500,000, enforcing the rules was not easy because of the vast amount of money that the companies which flout the rules stand to make.

    Panorama: Call Centres Undercover will be broadcast at 8.30pm on BBC One on July 2.

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ukne...esnt-work.html
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