5 April 2005
Consumers in the UK should be breathing a sigh of relief today after the premium-rate services watchdog ICSTIS clamped down on rogue home phone calling operations.
The group levied fines totalling £1.3 million against various automated calling services that have blighted the nation's homeowners in recent times.
The never seen before sanctions have been called for because of a series of abusive services promoted by pre-recorded automated calls and voice messages to home telephones across the UK.
"These services are simply unacceptable. They are intrusive, misleading and almost certainly illegal," said ICSTIS' director, George Kidd.
"We have acted fast to stop the harm but the problem has not gone away. Over Easter we again saw a spate of this junk marketing. When this goes further, into illegality and fraud, the proper authorities must also act."
Other such calls beguiled members of the public into calling premium rate numbers in the belief they had won competitions.
ICSTIS stated that the fines indicate the urgency for changes to be made in the regulation of premium rate services, highlighted by a recent Ofcom report.
Don't pay more than you need on everyday things. Switching home telephone supplier is easy and saves you money at uSwitch.com.
© 2008 Adfero Ltd
Content for the uSwitch.com market news service is provided by a third party, Adfero Ltd. Whilst uSwitch.com makes reasonable efforts to check the reliability of this content, uSwitch.com does not guarantee the accuracy thereof or endorse the views or opinions given by Adfero Ltd, unless expressly stated otherwise.