Prisoners ‘cold calling’ householders
CONVICTS are being paid for ‘cold calling’ householders from jail.
The inmates of some of the country’s toughest prisons are being trusted to harvest sensitive information – sometimes involving financial affairs.
They are picking up £3. 0 a day to call potential customers for insurance policies. They also carry out marketing surveys.
One of the cold-callers was a conman who ran a £5.7million telemarketing scam with thousands of victims.
Concerns were raised last night at the potential dangers and the prospect of the elderly and vulnerable being coerced into buying services or policies they don’t need. ‘You really could not make this up: a conman convicted of a telemarketing scam having the chance to make cold calls while in prison,’ said Tory MP Andrew Bridgen.
A Whitehall source said: ‘It’s bad enough getting unwanted cold calls from a normal salesman but it is terrifying to think that the person on the line asking for information is a prisoner. It’s unnerving.’
The Ministry of Justice confirmed inmates continue to work at prison ‘call centres’.
A Prison Service spokesman said: ‘All offenders are rigorously risk-assessed for suitability for the role and all calls are supervised and monitored.’
UNDER a new rehabilitation scheme for serious criminals, a call centre has been set up at a category B prison, where convicts try to sell insurance to unsuspecting consumers – without revealing they are calling from behind bars.
Yes, rehabilitation is tremendously important. But aren’t we entitled to know if we are being offered life insurance by a murderer – or giving intimate details of our homes to a career burglar?