Spam texts can be lucrative for rogue firms

OVER 120,000 reports about unwanted marketing texts or calls have been made to the Information Commissioner’s Office over the last 12 months.

Fears have been raised some rogue companies or employees are selling on details to people who then bombard mobile users with spam messages. There are concerns some are being sent from abroad and people have also complained of receiving them after an accident.

Last night a spokesman for the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) said it appeared mass messages were being sent to random mobile numbers, quickly generated on a computer.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

In most cases it is believed those sending the messages do not hold information about whether somebody has had an accident or is entitled to a Payment Protection Insurance (PPI) refund they are simply searching for people who want to make claims.

If people respond, it can prove highly lucrative, as some rogue companies are willing to hand over cash to the spammers in return for details of respondents who may be interested in making claims. They can be placed on a ‘suckers’ list’, so-called because they are judged to be vulnerable. Their numbers and details are then sold on again and again.

Often messages are sent from pay-as-you-go sim mobile cards, which are difficult to trace.

The ICO spokesman said two owners of a marketing company which has plagued the public with millions of unlawful spam texts were fined £440,000 last year and said it was currently investigating others.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

The evidence obtained showed the company was using unregistered pay-as-you-go sim cards to send out as many as 840,000 illegal text messages a day with an income of £7,000 - £8,000 a day.

The ICO say it is perfectly legal to send some marketing messages but the spam messages appear to breach the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations, which regulate electronic marketing, because they are sent to individuals without prior consent and without identifying the sender.

“With regards to those companies operating abroad, the regulations only apply to companies that have operations in the UK.

“If a UK company is asking non-UK contractors to send out unsolicited texts or make unsolicited calls on their behalf, the UK company would also be in breach the regulations,” the ICO spokesman added.