Cowboy firm ‘made 200m cold calls... and put lives at risk’
A SCOTS firm is under investigation after allegedly plaguing homes and businesses with 200million illegal cold calls.
The company was raided by privacy watchdog the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) yesterday amid fears lives had been put at risk.
Officials confiscated computers and documents thought to have been used in the firm’s seven-month campaign.
It is thought to be the largest number of nuisance calls ever recorded by one firm.
The authority also accused the unnamed company of putting the safety of the public at risk by making repeated automated calls to a Network Rail signal box ‘clogging up the line’ for drivers and pedestrians calling to check if it was safe to cross.
Ken Macdonald, head of ICO Scotland, said: ‘These calls have caused millions of people disruption, annoyance and distress, but those made to a control centre charged with public safety may have endangered lives.
‘Companies behind nuisance calls should know that people are sick of them, and when people complain to us, we will act.’
Trading Standards Scotland said it had been liaising with ICO on the raid at the unnamed firm but its officers were not present.
The raid, in Clydebank, Dunbartonshire, was prompted by complaints about automated nuisance calls promoting boiler and window replacement schemes.
According to the ICO, the calls, which contain recorded messages, often claimed to be working in line with both Scottish and UK Government energy saving schemes as well as non-existent initiatives.
Daniel Lennie, West Dunbartonshire Council’s representative for Clydebank Waterfront, said: ‘Nuisance phone calls are something that plagues the elderly and most vulnerable in their homes and it needs stamping out.’
The previous highest number of cold calls were made by Welsh firm Your Money Rights Ltd, which used an automated system related to payment protection insurance from its base in Carmarthenshire.
The firm was fined £350,000 last year for making 146million cold calls in four months. The ICO said it will not name the current firm until its investigation is over.
A watchdog spokesman said: ‘You should only receive automated marketing calls if you have previously agreed an organisation can make these calls to you.’
The Scottish Government said it has invested £125,000 to enable more than 1,200 vulnerable people to access call blockers.
A Scottish Government spokesman said: ‘While the regulation of this issue is currently reserved to UK Government, we have established the Nuisance Calls Commission to find practical solutions that could better protect our most vulnerable citizens.’
The incident with the level crossing happened at Banavie, near Fort William, Inverness-shire.
A Network Rail spokesman said: ‘Phone-operated level crossings are mainly located on private land and are used by a small number of designated users. Users of these private crossings know not to cross the tracks without first speaking to a signaller.’