Nuisance Call Firm Keurboom Hit With Record Fine (bbc.com)

An anonymous reader writes: A cold-calling firm has been fined a record $515,000 by the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) for making almost 100 million nuisance calls. Keurboom Communications called people, sometimes at night, to see if they were eligible for road-accident or PPI compensation, the ICO said. It breached privacy laws by calling people without their consent. The company has since gone into liquidation but the ICO said it was committed to recovering the fine. It said it had received more than 1,000 complaints about automated calls from the Bedfordshire-registered company. The ICO said Keurboom Communications called some people repeatedly and during unsocial hours. It also hid its identity so that people would find it harder to complain. "The unprecedented scale of its campaign and Keurboom's failure to co-operate with our investigation has resulted in the largest fine issued by the Information Commissioner for nuisance calls," said Steve Eckersley, head of enforcement at the ICO.

Comments

Which they won't pay

[FrankHaynes]

They will just abscond with their ill-gotten profits and form another company beyond the reach of the long arm of the law to continue raping and pillaging phone lines.

Re:Which they won't pay

[The Grim Reefer]

They will just abscond with their ill-gotten profits and form another company beyond the reach of the long arm of the law to continue raping and pillaging phone lines.

That's why we should nuke them from orbit, it's the only way to be sure.

yeah, i read it

[turkeydance]

In October, the government announced plans to let the ICO fine company directors as well as their businesses.

Pathetic

[bazmail]

So 100 million calls costs 400k? That sounds like a competitive rate. Far from being a deterrent its also a guarantee they can't be sued from once they are fined. 2 for the price of 1.

Unforgeable Caller ID

[david.emery]

I repeat my call for unforgeable Caller ID. If the Telco can't verify the actual caller phone number and identity, it should present "untrusted" or some words to that effect.

The argument 'this can't be done' doesn't sound credible to me, it implies the Phone Company doesn't know who to bill. Yes, this could be a significant change to Telco switches. But they've been facilitating these kinds of frauds for way too long.

This will not stop nuisance calls, but it will make it MUCH EASIER to block or ignore them.

Re:Unforgeable Caller ID

[silas_moeckel]

Even as a small company I've got 4 voip transit providers. Requiring that you have a DID with a given provider is broken. It really does not matter these shops switch providers often to get out of paying bills or just escape the backlash from their calls. Even when they get a DID it's a few cents they use it and throw it away once it gets blocked by google etc and move onto the next one.

Watching for these patterns is easy but they are making money allowing the calls. A quick criminal penalty for businesses to hide or forge their caller ID as in business death penalty and sanctions against the management would work. Please include politicians in it as well :)

Fuck your fines

[Notabadguy]

Arrest people.

Re:Small Fine

[ShanghaiBill]

$15 an hour ($30k per year). Maybe $35k-$45k per year.

Most of the telemarketers I talk to have distinct South Asian or Filipino accents. I sometimes ask where they are located, and occasionally they open up and talk about that. Most are from southern India. The Filipinos are usually in or near Manila.

I doubt if they are making anywhere close to $15 per hour.

Re:Unforgeable Caller ID - aka "ANI/ALI"

[Anonymous Coward]

Enhanced 911 refers to the ability of the 911 Communications Center to receive Automatic Number Identification and Automatic Location Identification also known as (ANI/ALI). Enhanced 911 Centers employ technology far beyond that available to the general public such as “Caller ID”. In fact even if you have an unlisted number or caller ID block, when you call 911 we still get your information.

Really wish an eye for an eye applied here

[Solandri]

If they made 100 million nuisance calls, the company officers should be required to answer 100 million nuisance calls before they're allowed free. Because collectively that's how much of everyone's time they wasted with their calls. (And to save you the math, at 10 seconds per call, that's 32 years answering 24/7.)

Re:Small Fine

[FrankHaynes]

I wrote a voice script that would do this very thing: play a "Hello?" announcement, say "Yes" and "Uh huh." every so often. It was fun to eavesdrop on the drone on the other end going along with it for 30-60 seconds before realizing how much time he had wasted. Great fun was had by all.

Of course, pressing 1 is equivalent to replying to junk mail so you are now marked as a valid "mark" and will no doubt receive more such robocalls. May God have mercy on your soul.