How cold calling targets the old

LAST year, the Daily Mail’s investigations unit took on the menace of cold calling.

It found charity giants had been hounding vulnerable pensioners on a ‘no-call’ list – even after they admitted having memory problems such as dementia.

The stories forced Prime Minister David Cameron to demand charities disclose their fundraising methods.

The investigations unit also spoke to data bosses who were willing to sell lists of personal data for as little as 8p each.

The sometimes highly personal information, gleaned from ‘lifestyle survey’ calls made by offshore companies, can be used by firms to target certain groups of people, such as pensioners.

Scots receive more cold calls than anywhere else in the country.

Last month, a survey by consumer group Which? found 90 per cent of Scots are plagued by nuisance calls. In the rest of the UK, the figure is 80 per cent. Scots are pestered by a billion unwanted calls every year, with the average landline telephone receiving ten every month.

Online, only 9 per cent of people said they never received nuisance calls.

The majority of cold calls are regarding payment protection insurance.

Homeowners are also commonly bothered by silent callers and calls about energy efficiency measures.

Three-quarters said receiving cold calls discouraged them from picking up their home phone, while four in ten said they felt intimidated by the calls.

Most people said they still received cold calls despite registering with the Telephone Preference Service – a system designed to help people opt out of telemarketing calls. A quarter had even registered their number as ex-directory and still had calls coming through.

In September, a Scots green energy firm was given a record fine by the Information Commissioner’s Office for making more than six million automated calls.

Home Energy and Lifestyle Management, based in Cambuslang, Lanarkshire, was fined £200,000 after it received 242 complaints in one month.

One complainer said he was waiting for news of a terminally-ill family member and was unable to ignore the phone.

The calls were often repeated and it was not possible to stop them by pressing an option button.

Which? has launched a campaign, Calling Time on Nuisance Calls, in a bid to force the Government to confront the issue. More than 370,000 people have signed the online petition so far.