At last! No more cold calls (unless you really want them)

ROGUE cold-call firms can now be fined up to £500,000 if they pester people who have not expressly signed up to hear from them.

The tough new laws, taking effect today, target firms making unwanted calls about payment protection insurance (PPI) or personal injury claims.

In the past, people could ‘opt out’ of receiving these sorts of calls by joining the Telephone Preference Service – a list of numbers cold-calling firms are banned from contacting.

The new rules mean cold-call firms are only allowed to contact people who deliberately ‘opt in’ to receive their calls.

The crackdown is designed to curb the plague of nuisance calls that has left many Britons unwilling to answer their own phones. Around 3.9billion nuisance phone calls and texts were made last year, the equivalent of 7,420 every minute, according to Ofcom.

And the biggest problems involve firms pushing compensation claims for accidents and PPI. In the last year, the average adult in Britain has received 50 texts, calls and emails chasing them to make a claim, according to the Financial Conduct Authority.

Many nuisance calls target the elderly and vulnerable.

The Government may also hand regulators extra powers to punish the individuals involved – by dishing out personal fines to the bosses of rogue firms. Today’s crackdown is a victory for the Daily Mail, which has campaigned for a clampdown on unscrupulous cold-calling firms.

Many target old and vulnerable