Nuisance Calls. The best sales list in the country.
A company selling nuisance call blockers made 758,000 nuisance calls to find customers. It has just been fined 190 grand.
THE GIST ON NUISANCE CALLS: "Nuisance Calls"
What did the company do?
A company was selling gadgets to block nuisance calls. To find people to sell them to, it made 758,000 nuisance calls, and it's just been fined £190,000. Because the people who hate cold calls the most are the easiest people to cold call.
The company was called Elderly Aids, and unsurprisingly it deliberately went after old people. Nearly 3,000 calls a day, every day, for nine months. The regulators said they were aggressive, misleading and often wouldn't give a name. One man reported that his elderly father gave up £139 upfront and then signed up to £6.99 a month.
What is the Telephone Preference Service?
There's a free register with a very sexy name: the Telephone Preference Service. You put your number on it, say you don't want sales calls, and after that if anyone calls you selling something, they're committing an offence.
Every one of those calls went to someone on that register. And that's the point.
Why were they the perfect customers?
Think about who ends up on a list like that: someone who is annoyed enough by cold calls to sign up. If you're selling a call blocker, they're your perfect customer. The list designed to protect people from cold calls was the best sales list in the country.
What does it tell us?
Asking to be left alone sends up a beacon saying what you care about, and someone is always looking out for it. Unsubscribing proves someone's reading your email. Complaining proves you're listening.
Every time you ask to be protected from something, you've told the salesman what you'd pay to avoid.
Do you answer calls from unknown numbers?
Your take. One tap, then see how everyone else voted.
Quick answers
Who made the nuisance calls?
A company called Elderly Aids, which sold call-blocking gadgets. It made 758,000 calls, nearly 3,000 a day for nine months, and was fined £190,000.
What is the Telephone Preference Service?
A free register. Once you are on it, anyone who calls to sell you something is committing an offence.
Why were the calls so effective?
The register lists people annoyed enough by cold calls to sign up, which makes them perfect customers for a call blocker.
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