back to article UK call centre linked to ‘millions’ of nuisance robo-calls raided by ICO

UK data privacy watchdogs raided Thursday a call centre allegedly linked to millions of nuisance calls. Officers from the ICO (Information Commissioner's Office) and Trading Standards conducted the operation against a business in the Brighton area suspected of using automatic dialling technology to make four to six million …

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  1. Martin Summers Silver badge

    Proper punishment

    String 'em up by the balls (or equivalent???).

    1. Christoph

      Re: Proper punishment

      Five years each working on a help desk - one of the ones where you are not allowed to disconnect a call regardless of what the caller says.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Proper punishment

      6 months in the pillory.

      Bring your own rotten fruit.

    3. Little Mouse

      Re: Proper punishment

      or alternatively - Just burn them. Burn them with fire.

      Then dance on the ashes singing Hallelujah.

      1. Cliff

        Re: Proper punishment

        There's a circle of hell waiting just for these fuckers, don't let them off with a 'stern talking to', they know full well what they're doing and deserve the absolutely fullest penalties allowable. Seize all the kit, seize all the profits, seize all the German cars in the car park.

        Then, and only then, snap a finger on each hand just to act as a reminder.

        1. Anthony Hegedus Silver badge

          Re: Proper punishment

          "Then, and only then, snap a finger on each hand just to act as a reminder." - so they'll have been injured, and they should be forced to have to phone each other about it 8 hours a day 7 days a week and try and offer each other compensation. If they don't comply, simply break more fingers.

      2. tony2heads
        Mushroom

        Re: Proper punishment

        Nuke the entire site from orbit--it's the only way to be sure

        It might take out Brighton as well, so where's the down side?

    4. FrogsAndChips Silver badge

      Re: Proper punishment

      Nuke the entire site from orbit.It's the only way to be sure.

    5. Inventor of the Marmite Laser Silver badge

      Re: Proper punishment

      They don't have 'em

    6. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Proper punishment

      Make them wear George Bush masks and drop them in ISIS territory.

    7. Gannettt

      Re: Proper punishment

      How about locking them in a room with a bed, a toilet and a telephone. The phone will ring at random times of the day and night, and the inmate receives an electric shock if he doesn't pick up the phone. And make sure the phone rings when he's eating or using the toilet. That should sort them out!

      1. enormous cow turd

        Re: Proper punishment

        Attach electrodes from the buzzer / bell of a telephone to their testicles and publish the number of that telephone to everyone who ever received a call from these worthless sh*ts. Nuking them is too fast and painless...

      2. jelabarre59

        Re: Proper punishment

        http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/flash/talibantelephone

    8. Anonymous Coward
      Joke

      Re: Proper punishment

      Make them call everyone they've called to apologise.

      1. PNGuinn
        Thumb Up

        Re: Proper punishment

        How about all those PLUS electrify the toilet seat and phone, but Pleeeese don't make the little ******* call anyone to apologise UNLESS they are forced to listen, without being able to ring off, to as much abuse as their victims care to administer. While hanging by the b***s

        I'd probably need at least 20 minuites to do the job properly, so it everyone is at least as charitable as me they should be hanging by the b***s for a reasonable time at least, Bonus if pressing 9 connects mains to set b***s. for a second or so.

  2. Doctor_Wibble

    Forget the fines

    As punishment, make the company responsible copy out the itemised phone bill 100 times and they have to supply their own paper and crayons.

  3. ravenviz Silver badge

    raided Thursday a call centre

    The shadow of greed that is.

    /yoda

    1. Amorous Cowherder
      Happy

      Re: raided Thursday a call centre

      The force is strong with them, hmmm raided on Thursday a call centre they did!

      1. GreggS

        Re: raided Thursday a call centre

        so was the cold call centre called Thursday cold called on a Thursday?

  4. Andy The Hat Silver badge

    Had a good one last night - a 'foreign national' scammer rang me at stupid-o-clock trying to sell a service to block all nuisance calls including those from abroad. The irony of the situation was lost on her ...

    ARGHHHHHH.

    Can't someone invent remote Tasers?

    "Hello"

    "... I'm not selling anything Meesta ... urr ...Ga... ", click, pfzzt, thump!

    "Thank you for calling. How very enjoyable. Please call again tomorrow." :-)

    1. Inventor of the Marmite Laser Silver badge

      Kickstarter project?

      1. Martin Summers Silver badge

        I'd give 'em a kick for a starter...

    2. Voland's right hand Silver badge

      It used to be possible

      It used to be possible to remote taser them 30+ years ago prior to the days of digital telephony. Unfortunately progress did with that idea.

      1. Terry Barnes

        Re: It used to be possible

        How so? There was no DC path between telephones, even on the same exchange.

        You could blow a whistle down a phone for a same exchange call, but on a call between exchanges the amplitude of any signal was limited - even in analogue days.

  5. Graham Marsden
    WTF?

    "four to six million recorded telephone calls a day"???

    Is this a mistake, because, if not, two things come to mind:

    1) Did nobody from their phone operating compay *notice* this?

    And:

    2) Based on those figures, they would call the entire population of the country in a fortnight at most.

    Now I know some people get multiple calls a day, but even so, it seems an astonishingly large figure.

    1. Paul Herber Silver badge

      Re: "four to six million recorded telephone calls a day"???

      > 1) Did nobody from their phone operating compay *notice* this?

      VOIP

    2. DJO Silver badge

      Re: "four to six million recorded telephone calls a day"???

      " Did nobody from their phone operating compay *notice* this?"

      As long as they were getting paid for each call why should they care? It's hardly in their favour to stop a cash cow as they were probably profiting from this almost as much as the charming people making the calls.

      The solution is clear, make the telcos financially responsible for sustained detectable abuse of their systems. They can easily detect this sort of behaviour if it's maintained for more than a few days from a single location and on detection they should either pull the plug or involve the authorities in prosecuting the people involved.

      1. John Lilburne

        Re: "four to six million recorded telephone calls a day"???

        "The solution is clear, make the telcos financially responsible for sustained detectable abuse of their systems."

        Hush your stupid mouth. Do you really want Mike Masnick yelling at you about breaking the internet? Forsooth this is a minor inconvenience the spam google ads must get through.

      2. Alan Brown Silver badge

        Re: "four to six million recorded telephone calls a day"???

        "The solution is clear, make the telcos financially responsible for sustained detectable abuse of their systems."

        That - and statutory damages per call plus a right of private action in small claims court, making the advertiser and the company which hired them jointly and severally liable.

        It was THAT which killed the junk fax industry in the USA overnight and has been extended to breaches of do not call lists (US State prosecutors don't pussyfoot around on DNC breaches either).

      3. Doctor Syntax Silver badge

        Re: "four to six million recorded telephone calls a day"???

        "The solution is clear, make the telcos financially responsible for sustained detectable abuse of their systems."

        Solution:

        Principle: This is pollution and the polluter pays.

        Method: Choose a number, say 147{$currently_unused_digit}. If the recipient considers the call to be spam they hang up and dial that number. The telco credits their A/C by a small fee, say £2 and adds it to the caller's bill plus handling charges. If the call came from a different network they transfer charge the fee plus charges to that network instead who can then bill their customer adding on their own handling charges and so on up the line. If a telco can't work out who to charge: tough and they'll quickly change their business model or keep on paying.

        Issues: This would need compulsion from OFTEL: no problem, just make the telcos do it. It would need S/W development upfront which has to be paid for: no problem, the telcos do it and take the cost out of their handling charges. There's the possibility that recipients might mistakenly or deliberately try to charge a genuine call: this would need a bit of statistical work to weed out such errors.

        1. This post has been deleted by its author

        2. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: "four to six million recorded telephone calls a day"???

          "Choose a number, say 147{$currently_unused_digit}. If the recipient considers the call to be spam they hang up and dial that number. The telco credits their A/C by a small fee, say £2 and adds it to the caller's bill plus handling charges."

          Hmm - have you considered the unintended consequences?

          I could set up a business making spam calls. I could also rent a few hundred phone numbers delivered over SIP trunks to a cheap IP PBX. I run a script on one end dialling those numbers repeatedly and then another script on the PBX dialling your 'spam alert' number after each call.

          All I have to do then is collect my winnings from the receiving numbers and not pay the bill for the call making numbers and I've made a fortune. You've created a perfect fraud opportunity.

          I'm not sure what you mean about the telcos 'business models' though - telcos are obliged to pass on calls without prejudice. They can't pick and choose which calls are valid and which aren't - in much the same way that the Royal Mail doesn't open up envelopes to see if you're sending an illegal letter or spam mail to someone.

          In your model a UK telco gets fined because a fly-by-night VOIP provider in Bermuda has a customer making scam calls. It seems like you're punishing the wrong people.

      4. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: "four to six million recorded telephone calls a day"???

        "The solution is clear, make the telcos financially responsible for sustained detectable abuse of their systems."

        You're asking telcos to systematically intervene and actually listen in to calls? That needs a change in the law and is not likely to be warmly received by people interested in privacy.

        You can't tell if it's abuse without listening in - for example, the services used by the elderly living at home where they are called maybe ten times a day and reminded to take medication and the like.

    3. spiny norman

      Re: "four to six million recorded telephone calls a day"???

      On the basis some company like this phones my landline and my mobile, sometimes several times a week, I'm not that surprised.

      If the ICO could also raid the company that thinks I should claim for injuries in an accident, when I wasn't even in the car at the time, I would be very happy. Actually, they could also raid the insurance company that sold the data. Even better, I can tell them which one that is.

    4. Richard_L

      Re: "four to six million recorded telephone calls a day"???

      If it's the same lot who keep pestering me on my mobile with an "unknown" incoming number, then yes, calling the entire population in less than a fortnight... then starting the process all over again asking the same question, does sound very plausible.

      It's usually about PPI, occasionallly aobut debt relief, and one was for solar panels, but the format's always the same. I've not claimed my free blah blah blah, so press 5 to speak to an adviser or press 9 if you don't want free money.

      Much as I want to shout at them, the connection always ends whether I press 5 or 9.

      1. Tom 35

        Re: "four to six million recorded telephone calls a day"???

        There is some outfit here in Canada that calls from a spoofed phone number (that often belongs to someone) telling me I won something press 1 to get scammed.

        1. hello, I'd like a large with double peperoni. This isn't Pizza Pizza? I want to order a Pizza...

        or my friends favorite

        1. Congratulations, you have won a crappy job working for a crook. You now have permission to kick your boss in the balls as hard as you want for free.

      2. Gannettt

        Re: "four to six million recorded telephone calls a day"???

        "Press 5 if you want to us to mark this number as active in our database, or press 9 if you want to us to mark this number as active in our database"

        FTFY

      3. Gerry 3
        Stop

        Re: "four to six million recorded telephone calls a day"???

        By pressing a button you're confirming that...

        1. Your number is a working voice line, not a fax machine, burglar alarm etc.

        2. You understand English.

        3. You listen to the whole message.

        4. You do as you are instructed.

        5. You were at home at the time they called.

        Result: Your number will be added to the Verified Suckers List and you'll get far more nuisance calls...

      4. Alan Brown Silver badge

        Re: "four to six million recorded telephone calls a day"???

        "Much as I want to shout at them, the connection always ends whether I press 5 or 9."

        Yes, but they call back a few days later without caller ID blocked. At that point you can tease more data out of them and pass the information to the ICO.

        How do you think they got enough data to act?

        1. launcap Silver badge
          Stop

          Re: "four to six million recorded telephone calls a day"???

          > Yes, but they call back a few days later without caller ID blocked.

          Tried that. Just ended up getting a whole set of different robocalls that started "dear subscriber".. About 15/day at one point.

          I'm not naturally a stabby person but those calls got me the closest I've been for a while.

          1. Vic

            Re: "four to six million recorded telephone calls a day"???

            I'm not naturally a stabby person

            Awesome. I'm pinching that :-)

            Vic.

      5. Voland's right hand Silver badge

        Re: "four to six million recorded telephone calls a day"???

        Scam popularity based on emails to a tarpit email bucket.

        1. PPI

        2. Debt relief

        3. Solar

        4. Pullman, F1 and Rally experience excursions

        5. Cold calling and forced selling courses

        6. Fleet vehicle tracking

        7. Up to about 1-2 months ago - eye laser surgery

        8. Insurance for 55+ year olds

        One of my older email addresses ended up in a british scammer database which operates an extremely professional SPAM racket. They register one shot domains for each mailshot and _DIFFERENT_ domains for the corresponding websites, etc so the mails never get high enough score on a spamchecker. I ended up abandoning that address and directing all the mail for it directly to razor, pyzor and a few other spam databases. I still keep a copy to keep abreast of the current scams. Just in case someone somewhere else provides me with an "opportunity" on one of these so I can take their head off straight away without even listening.

    5. Richard Jones 1
      Mushroom

      Re: "four to six million recorded telephone calls a day"???

      About half the calls made would meet busy tone or not get answered. Some might go to idle numbers with no working connection. Many would get terminated ASAP; they were almost certainly VOIP calls and many might be dropped by the outfit making them. Unless the network receiving the call attempts find something odd about the calls why would they spend money looking for trouble.

      By the way, who says the network did not help with the bust?

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: "four to six million recorded telephone calls a day"???

        I had three from apparently the same company yesterday morning with native English speakers and Withheld numbers. They were called "Renewable Energy". The third caller was miffed that I had already been phoned - but he was only concerned about whether "had there been an outcome". To which I said "Yes - I am getting very angry".

        1. Corinne

          Re: "four to six million recorded telephone calls a day"???

          I had similar once, 3 calls in a day about PPIs. My response was "yes, the outcome has been that I've already reported your company as this number is TPI registered". They did try to tell me that TPI registration only lasts 3 months then you have to renew it, which I told them was a load of male cattle waste and did they want to discuss this in court. Didn't get ANY unsolicited calls on that number for weeks after...

          1. Triggerfish

            Re: "four to six million recorded telephone calls a day"???

            I have had someone spin the TPI doesn't count line years ago, in fact they then told me that BT had given them the numbers.

            I told BT this, must say BT's legal dept wasn't amused and works far faster than the rest of the company.

    6. Phil Endecott

      Re: "four to six million recorded telephone calls a day"???

      > Did nobody from their phone operating compay *notice* this?

      I once tracked down a company operating a telephony gateway service that was being used for spam calls and sent them a complaint. Their response was "you probably made a mistake, and even if it did come via us, they are probably using an opt-in list."

    7. Alan Brown Silver badge

      Re: "four to six million recorded telephone calls a day"???

      "1) Did nobody from their phone operating company *notice* this?"

      Of course they did, and rubbed their hands together gleefully,

      Most of these were coming with CLI of 0843 724 - which traces back to a provider specialising in making it impossible to call back.

      Of course Ofcom haven't whapped the company providing the numbers and the scam will continue.

      In the meantime, evidence tying Tetrus Telecommunications into the Yahoo mail breach of a few years back remains studiously ignored by the ICO.

  6. DJV Silver badge
    Mushroom

    The ICO finally grew a pair - about fucking time!

    See title.

    1. Havin_it
      Devil

      Re: The ICO finally grew a pair - about fucking time!

      Jumping the gun a bit there, old stick. We've all heard this tough talk from the ICO before, but it's all vapour. I'll reserve my judgment on their, um, plurality until someone's copped a fine or sanction that actually hurts them compared to the amount they're raking in. Not holding my breath :(

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