Outlaw ALL cold calling
HAS any good ever come from a cold call? After all, those who make them are seeking to sell goods or services you never knew you wanted at often inflated prices.
Their prime targets are the elderly or vulnerable, who are more likely to be home and still too polite to hang up.
So why doesn’t the Government ban their nefarious activities once and for all?
Today, on page 47, we feature the heartbreaking case of vulnerable widower Brian, 84, who has been targeted again and again by vultures picking over his hardearned pension money.
Most of the firms we contacted were adamant they had not ‘cold called’ Brian. He must have agreed at some point to hear from us, they protested.
But the more we pressed, the clearer it became this didn’t mean he had ever specified he wanted to hear from any particular firm. What’s more likely is he had once accidentally ticked — or failed to untick — a box giving permission for his details to be shared with third parties.
Once your phone number is included on any database somewhere, it’s pretty much a free-for-all. These lists are sold on again and again the world over.
For years, ministers promised action. But we are still waiting for a cold-calling ban on pensions two years after a Government pledge.
And even when it does come into effect, it will not stop people calling about investment scams.
In addition, if you had dealings with a firm in the past, you remain fair game. Last month the Government did finally ban cold calls from claims companies promising compensation for everything from car accidents to PPI. But if someone has ‘opted in’ they can still be contacted.
No. What we require is a blanket ban on all direct marketing calls to landlines and mobile phones.
If it was made illegal for legitimate firms to plague customers with sales calls, it would be far easier to spot the fraudsters.
In the meantime, BT and the like should be offering all vulnerable households a free call-blocking service to at least reduce the number of calls they receive.
Sly rate switch
SNEAKY, sneaky First Direct. My regular saver paying 5 pc expired this month. It’s a good deal. Pay in the maximum £300 each month and you end up with just under £ 100 interest on £ 3,600 after a year.
However, when the deal ends, your money is dumped into an account paying just 0.15 pc — or a measly £5.55 on your £3,700 pot.
I’d expect the bank to make this crystal clear in any correspondence it sends out when an account is due to mature.
Yet while the bank had helpfully included my old, no- longer-relevant rate in bold at the top of my letter, it omitted to mention my new, paltry rate.
This vital fact was instead included on one of the four, double-sided A4 sheets accompanying the letter which summarised in unnecessary detail the ins and outs of not just my new account, but all of the bank’s accounts.
It’s almost as though it doesn’t want you to find out what rate you’re getting . But then this is hardly surprising given it knows full well that I could earn an extra 1.35 percentage points on an easyaccess account elsewhere.
Scam watch
ALMOST every week someone alerts us to a new type of scam.
In the spirit of the ‘ Tell2’ campaign — where you are encouraged to tell two people when you come across a potential fraud risk — I have decided to launch a regular scam watch feature in this column. First up is courtesy of Raymond, from Windsor.
He received an email purporting to be from British Gas claiming he was due a refund on his maintenance contract for 2016-2018.
‘It had all the British Gas logos and bypassed our PC security,’ he said. ‘They asked you to fill in all your details including your mother’s maiden name, which immediately made us smell a rat.
‘Then there was the fact that you did not have to log into your British Gas account. A quick check with British Gas confirmed our suspicions,’ Raymond warned.
If you want to warn others about a scam you’ve spotted, write to me at Money Mail, Northcliffe House, 2 Derry Street, London, W8 5TT or use the email here.