PPI firm is first scalp in major ICO data assault

A PPI claims company has become the first of three businesses to get a battering from the Information Commissioner’s Office this week, after being fined £80,000 for an illegal marketing campaign which saw it send out more than 1.3 million spam texts.
It is the first of three fines totalling £250,000 that the ICO will issue within the next five to companies behind nuisance calls and texts and follows warnings of a new clampdown on brands using rogue data, even if they are unaware that it has been collected illegally.
Today’s fine has been issued to UKMS Money Solutions (UKMS). It used mobile phone numbers it had bought from list brokers to encourage people to make a claim for PPI compensation.
But the Birmingham-based firm did not check that the people had agreed to receive marketing text messages – something they are legally required to ensure.
A total of 1,442 people complained to the ICO and the 7726 spam text reporting service during UKMS’ nine-week direct marketing campaign between April and June 2015.
ICO enforcement manager Andy Curry said: “UKMS relied on their data suppliers’ word that the people on the lists had agreed to be contacted. That’s simply not good enough.
“UKMS should have known that the responsibility to ensure they had the right consent to send messages to people rests with them.”
Later this week the ICO will fine another two companies, this time for making nuisance telephone calls.
This will bring the total number of fines issued over the last four months around nuisance marketing to £1m.

TOPICS:ICO nuisance calls