Company fined 150000 for making half a million nuisance marketing calls

A Glasgow company has been fined £150,000 for making more than half a million nuisance marketing calls.

A Glasgow company has been fined £150,000 for making more than half a million nuisance marketing calls.

An investigation by the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) found DialADeal Scotland Ltd (DDSL) broke the law by making unsolicited calls about non-existent Green Deal energy saving schemes.

These were about boiler and window replacement, loft insulation and home improvement grants.

The company phoned numbers which had been registered with the Telephone Preference Service (TPS) where people had not given their permission to receive them.

It disguised the telephone numbers they were calling from and used false trading names, the investigation found.

More than 500 complaints were made, one of the highest numbers received.

The calls were made between August 2019 and March 2020.

The ICO said it has ordered the company to stop making unsolicited marketing calls and blocked its attempt to be struck off the Companies House register to try to avoid paying the fine.

Complaints included the company saying they were a government department giving grants for insulation.

Another said DDSL claimed to be from the Home Advice Unit and that they were calling to see if people were eligible for some home improvements after recent bad weather.

Ken Macdonald, head of ICO Regions, said: ”DialADeal were breaking the law on a number of fronts: not only were they making calls to people without their permission, they were also hiding their identity using false names and spoof numbers.

“Calls about Green Deal schemes can be a real problem as people often believe they are legitimate but, thanks to the complaints made by the public, we’ve been able to take action.

“Companies making similar nuisance calls should take note, we use our powers where we see serious breaches of the law.”

Published: 05/09/2021 by Radio NewsHub