{"id":5538,"date":"2018-12-17T13:20:43","date_gmt":"2018-12-17T13:20:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/nuisance-call-bosses-face-500000-fines\/"},"modified":"2018-12-17T13:20:43","modified_gmt":"2018-12-17T13:20:43","slug":"nuisance-call-bosses-face-500000-fines","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/nuisance-call-bosses-face-500000-fines\/","title":{"rendered":"Nuisance call bosses face \u00a3500,000 fines"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div property=\"articleBody\">\n<figure class=\"media-landscape no-caption full-width lead\"><span class=\"image-and-copyright-container\"><\/p>\n<p>                <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"js-image-replace\" alt=\"woman on phone\" src=\"https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/320\/cpsprodpb\/11670\/production\/_104808217_gettyimages-171585531.jpg\" width=\"976\" height=\"549\"\/><span class=\"off-screen\">Image copyright<\/span><br \/>\n                 <span class=\"story-image-copyright\">Getty Images<\/span><\/p>\n<p>            <\/span><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<p class=\"story-body__introduction\">Directors of firms that cold-call consumers can now be fined up to \u00a3500,000 under new rules that have come into force.<\/p>\n<p>A ban on unsolicited phone calls <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gov.uk\/government\/news\/tough-new-measures-to-end-the-blight-of-nuisance-calls\" class=\"story-body__link-external\">came into effect in September<\/a> this year.<\/p>\n<p>But some directors whose firms were shut down were able to evade fines by declaring bankruptcy &#8211; and then starting up a new company.<\/p>\n<p>The Information Commissioner&#8217;s Office said the new rules would make it easier to punish those responsible.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We welcome this amendment to the law which will increase the tools we have to protect the public,&#8221; said Andy Curry, who heads up the nuisance calls team at the information watchdog.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It will mean we can recover the fine more easily and also make it much harder for unscrupulous operators to set up in business again.&#8221;<\/p>\n<ul class=\"story-body__unordered-list\">\n<li class=\"story-body__list-item\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/business-45446153\" class=\"story-body__link\">Cold-calling ban comes into operation<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"story-body__list-item\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/business-40974943\" class=\"story-body__link\">Cold-calling ban to include texts and emails<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Last year, more than 3.9 billion nuisance calls and texts were made to UK households, according to the telecoms regulator, Ofcom.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"story-body__crosshead\">&#8216;Act swiftly&#8217;<\/h2>\n<p>The nuisance phone calls are typically about payment protection insurance (PPI) mis-selling or accident claims. However, in the past six months the most frequent calls have come from firms claiming to be BT, HMRC or TalkTalk, according to consumer group Which?.<\/p>\n<p>The number of complaints about such calls fell in October, following the ban.<\/p>\n<p>Nevertheless in that month alone there were still more than 15,000 complaints about nuisance calls, broken down as follows:<\/p>\n<ul class=\"story-body__unordered-list\">\n<li class=\"story-body__list-item\">7,547 complaints about automated calls<\/li>\n<li class=\"story-body__list-item\">6,980 about live calls<\/li>\n<li class=\"story-body__list-item\">1,245 about text messages<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Which? urged the Information Commissioner&#8217;s Office (ICO) to issue the maximum fine of \u00a3500,000 wherever possible, to act as a further deterrent. <\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The introduction of fines for bosses of these companies is a significant step, and the regulator must now act swiftly to properly police and fine those who flout the law &#8211; demonstrating that there is no place in our society for these practices,&#8221; said Alex Neill, Which? managing director of home products and services. <\/p>\n<p>The current ban affects calls from claims management companies. A ban on cold-calling for pension sales is due to come into effect in January.<\/p>\n<hr class=\"story-body__line\"\/>\n<h2 class=\"story-body__crosshead\">How to deal with cold callers <\/h2>\n<h2 class=\"story-body__crosshead\">Do:<\/h2>\n<ul class=\"story-body__unordered-list\">\n<li class=\"story-body__list-item\">Ask cold callers to remove your information from their records<\/li>\n<li class=\"story-body__list-item\">Find out caller&#8217;s number from a landline by dialling 1471 after the call<\/li>\n<li class=\"story-body__list-item\">Check with your phone company if you can be made ex-directory<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2 class=\"story-body__crosshead\">Don&#8217;t:<\/h2>\n<ul class=\"story-body__unordered-list\">\n<li class=\"story-body__list-item\">Give away personal or financial information, even if callers claim to be from a company you know<\/li>\n<li class=\"story-body__list-item\">Lose your temper. Be firm and hang up if the caller refuses to go away<\/li>\n<li class=\"story-body__list-item\">Call back phone numbers left on your voicemail, or reply to text messages you don&#8217;t recognise<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Source: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/skillswise\/learners\/rip-off-britain\/rip-off-britain-cold-calls\" class=\"story-body__link\">BBC Skillswise<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/business-46571074\">Source<\/a> by <a href=\"\">[author_name]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Image copyright Getty Images Directors of firms that cold-call consumers can now be fined up to \u00a3500,000 under new rules that have come into force. A ban on unsolicited phone calls came into effect in September this year. But some directors whose firms were shut down were able to evade fines by declaring bankruptcy &#8211; &hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":5539,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5538","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5538","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5538"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5538\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5539"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5538"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5538"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5538"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}