Six debt management firms warned about illegal cold-calling
Friday, June 5th 2009
The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) has told six debt management companies and four cold-calling companies to stop using "unsolicited and misleading" calls to advertise their services.
The unnamed businesses have been threatened with formal enforcement action.
The warning comes after the OFT and the Information Commissioner's Office received a flood of complaints from consumers that had been cold-called, despite many of them registering with the Telephone Preference Service (TPS).
The OFT also found that most of the information given to consumers was potentially misleading or inaccurate.
Some calls misled consumers into believing that they were one of the "few chosen individuals" contacted as part of a government scheme to help wipe out consumer debt.
Other recipients were transferred to a commercial debt management business on the pretext of talking to a not-for-profit debt adviser; once referred to a different business, consumers were often not told that there was a fee payable for both the initial advice and the debt solutions offered.
The firms in question have been warned that they may also have broken the law by pestering individuals who had not given their consent to be called or who had registered to the TPS.
Nigel Cates, Deputy Director of Consumer Credit, said: "Taking advantage of people who are suffering distress through debt problems is completely unacceptable and this practice of illegal or misleading cold-calling for debt management services must cease immediately. The current economic climate means that it is vitally important vulnerable consumers are protected. We will not hesitate to take action against any business that uses misleading calls to advertise debt management services."
As an ethical business, we at The Financial Helpline, NEVER cold call or make unsolicited calls
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