Firms fined over ‘spam’

FOUR companies behind 44 million spam emails, 15 million nuisance calls and one million spam texts have been fined a total of £600,000.

Barrington Claims Limited, previously based in Llanelli but now registered in Port Talbot, has been fined £250,000 for making more than 15 million automated calls, and London-based Newday Limited must pay £230,000 for sending more than 44 million spam emails, the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) said.

Goody Market UK Limited, in Liverpool, has been fined £40,000 for sending 111,367 spam texts and Macclesfieldbased TFLI Limited has been fined £80,000 for sending 1.19 million nuisance texts.

The ICO said hundreds of complaints from the public prompted its investigations that found that all four firms had broken the law by not having people’s agreement to be contacted by them.

Complaints were made about the frequency and persuasive nature of the calls.

Andy Curry, ICO enforcement group manager, said: “Firms cannot get away with failing to follow the rules. I would urge anyone bothered by nuisance marketing to report it to us.”

Nuisance calls and spam texts and emails can be reported via the ICO’s website at: https://ico.org.uk or by calling 0303 123 1113 with as much detail as possible.

Mobile users can also report spam texts by forwarding the message to 7726.