Dear tellows fellows,
The holiday season is here and it gets even better as the new laws regarding nuisance calls have finally come into force!
New Legislation in the The Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations (PECR)
Nuisance calls have been a troubling issue in the UK for the past few years. According to Which, nearly three quarters of people in the UK receive at least one nuisance call a month. The government has now taken a further step to solve the never-ending problem of nuisance calls. Under the new legislation on the 17th of December, company directors who run unsolicited calls in their companies will be fined by the ICO of up to £500,000. Previously, the Information Commisioner´s Office (ICO) was only able to fine the companies and not the individuals who run the companies. Because of this, company directors have been able to evade justice by dissolving the company and setting up a new business under a different name. Thus, the new rules will give the ICO scope to fine the company, its directors, or both. The change would also allow the ICO to hold individual directors to account where the company fails to pay the fine or is placed into liquidation.
High Number of Nuisance Calls in 2018
This new government crackdown is expected to reduce the high number of nuisance calls in the past year. In 2018 itself, there were 15,772 concerns reported to the ICO in October – 7,547 for automated calls, 6,980 for live calls and 1,245 for SMS. In our tellows community, we have also seen many reports about unsolicited calls made by companies during this past year. We have collected some of the reports we found at tellows regarding this issue:
anonymous reported DBS with the number 01914730719 as Telemarketer:
Called caller about energy.This is the 7th called i’ve had from these people (have blocked the other 6 numbers yet they keep ringing!) We are on the TPS but they still call!
Caroline reported Arrow Travel Solutions with the number 01332323941 as aggresive advertising:
Very aggressive, when asked to remove my number from their database he said ‘no I won’t ‘ and hung up
Protect Yourself Against Unsolicited Nuisance Calls!
Although the number of nuisance calls might decrease with the new law that came into force, we would still recommend you to be aware of the potential risk of any unknown calls. Some unsolicited calls can also come from an unofficial or a fake company and leads you to the danger of scams. We also recommend you to install the tellows “Caller ID & Block” app so you can avoid any nuisance calls! Our app has automatic identification and blocking features that can protect you from annoying calls anytime. The app is available for Android and iPhone.
We hope you can enjoy your holiday stress-free without receiving any nuisance calls anymore!
