UK data watchdog raids companies suspected of 11 million nuisance texts The Information Commissioner's Office has raided two companies thought to be behind 11 millions nuisance texts sent to the public. Computer equipment and documents were seized for analysis at two Greater Manchester-based premises of the unnamed entities, the ICO said. The perpetrators are understood to have sent the text …
1 - The Watchdog will give them a pathetic fine and congratulate themselves in a press release.
2 - The targeted company will fold instead of paying the fine.
3 - Next week the director starts a new company with a different name and continues bothering people with "PPI" and "Have you been in an accident" spam.
The cycle of futility
4. In 5 years time the director will be sitting in the high court wearing a pink shirt and black tie between his two solicitors suing Google for not respecting his right to be forgotten(*).
Anon. Nothing personal, I just re-read "Dead Air" recently.
(*)Any likeness to any characters fictional or real is purely coincidental.
"Next week the director starts a new company with a different name and continues bothering people with "PPI" and "Have you been in an accident" spam."
Actually what usually happens then is that they call in the insolvency service and get them disqualified as directors for not paying the fines. And they usually get circa ten year bans!
> We will have people in your area next week... Can we do your driveway?
Translation: I have a mate who can "divert" a load of tarmac from a roadworks contract he's working on, and we can lay it for you for a bodge job that'll have weeds growing through it in 3 months, no problem.
"I.e. a rat-infested tenement flat in Moss Side.
If they really want to end crime, they first need to end poverty."
Better idea: New orifices for OFFCON. Sort the problem for good, quick, or STAY THERE.
I wasn't aware that these scamming barstewards were poor. Nor I suspect are the parasites in OFFCON.
Oh Homer, Moss Side isn't what it used to be, it's mostly students these days round them parts. Sure there is poverty but I hardly see a connection with a PPI firm and poverty on an estate. Where do they put all the people that take the calls? Sure some of the houses are big from the days of the cotton industry but not that big.
"The raids almost certainly did not look like this.....Pity."
Not quite like that, but if the police were there to obtain entry and ensure compliance, then it probably wouldn't have been very pleasant.
I know people who've been on "competition law training", and if the boys in blue are riding shotgun (albeit not in literal sense in the UK) then the raids to seek out white collar crime aren't a polite tea and biscuits type of affair, more a case of shouting at people to stand in the corner, bundling them along if they don't move, threatening them with arrest if they do more than fart, and taking absolutely no shit. The police simply aren't used to dealing with white collar types other than as victims. So when under suspicion, white collar people get the same sort of assertive/aggressive treatment you see being doled out to ratboys on police camera documentaries. You could regard that as a form of equality if you wanted to.
Agreed - there are going to be some slightly sore wrists resulting from this...
Disclaimer:
I meant sore wrists as in slapped as opposed to any other activity which could injure a wrist, but given the nature of the companies involved then the other reason is probably more valid and their wrists will be too sore already to notice the slaps.
I haven't received any SMS from non-friends since I complained to O2 Germany, back in 2008, that sending SMS offering bonus minutes to people at 2 in the morning, when they are on call, is not appreciated and would probably have a negative effect on me wanting to renew my contract...
But I've never received real spam SMS from third parties, here in Germany. Maybe it is a cultural thing?
"But I've never received real spam SMS from third parties, here in Germany. Maybe it is a cultural thing?"
Cultural yes - inasmuch as german law enforcement has been known to go and kick in spanish doorways to nail down SMS spammers.
And to make sure the penalties actually stick.
Funnily enough, on O2 PAYG, I never received a thing for about seven years until I went to Germany in 2014.
Then I got automated call after automated call after automated call after automated call after automated call after automated call after automated call after automated call after automated call after automated call after automated call after automated call after automated call after automated call after automated call after automated call after automated call after automated call after automated call after automated call after automated call after automated call after...
From the Antilles, Jamaica, the U.S., all over the place - everywhere except the U.K.
Returned to the U.K. and kept getting them until one day, after about the thirtieth such call in twelve months, when I very insistently wanted to know precisely which Road Traffic Department had informed the caller of my recent accident in a car I haven't owned since 2009 and she said "'ll get them to remove your name from the database and hung up."
Haven'r heard a thing since.
Must be Germany.
A family member was offered short term call centre work which turned out ot be a company selling a package to prevent nuisance telephone calls, you know, just like Telephone Preference Service. Didn't last long but the fact they got away with it at all and made money was a sad indicator
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