Energy Firm Slapped With $65,000 Fine For Making 1.5 Million Nuisance Calls (theregister.co.uk)

A UK firm offering people energy-saving solutions has been fined after making almost 1.5 million unsolicited calls without checking if the numbers were registered on the UK's opt-out database. From a report: Southampton-based Home Logic used a dialler system to screen the telephone numbers that it planned to call against the Telephone Preference Service register, which allows people to opt out of receiving marketing calls. This system was unavailable for at least 90 days out of the 220 between April 2015 and March 2016 due to technical issues -- but that didn't stop Home Logic from continuing to make phone calls. Some 1,475,969 were made in that time. And, as a result, Blighty's data protection watchdog the Information Commissioner's Office received 133 complaints about the firm from people who had registered with the TPS and did not expect to be picking up the phone to marketeers. It ruled that the biz had breached the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations and duly fined it 50,000 pound ($64,500).

Comments

Re:I wish the US would do this.

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Putting yourself on the list is the first step. The second steps is to complain when someone calls you. You can use the same DNC website for that.

And then, when someone calls you, try to get some information from them before you tell them you're on the list. Information such as the name and location of the company, a callback number, or other details. Add this information to the complaint report you file on the DNC website.

And when you do tell them you're on the DNC list, don't let them feed you any crap like "oh, sorry, I'll remove you from my list then." Their list doesn't matter. The DNC list does, and they should be checking it before they call you.

Companies can be fined big bucks for each call they make to a DNC number. But you have to complain for that to happen.