Spam text messages can be quite a pain, and if you are anything like
me, you get really annoyed with you receive a spam text message, so it
comes as good news that over here in the United Kingdom, the Information
Commissioner’s office (ICO) is doing something about stopping spammers
and blaggers in the mobile space.
According to a report over on the BBC, two such text message spammers that were a part of the expanding industry that sends texts to promote payment protection miss-selling and personal injury compensation claims, which are fuelling the trade via selling info without permission, have received a heavy fine.
The two men in question are Gary McNeish and Christopher Neibel, who sent millions of spam text messages have now received a fine of a very hefty £440,000, and this is the first time the watchdog has used their powers to levy fines for this type of case.
Christopher Graham, the Information Commissioner has said that people have made it clear they are annoyed and distressed at the continuing bombardment of illegal calls and texts, and as such they are using the full force of the law to crack down of those firms that are responsible.
The case revolves around Greater Manchester based Tetrus Telecoms that offered to send out in excess of 800,000 texts a day on behalf of their clients that are claim management firms seeking compensation cases to pass onto lawyers.
Apparently according to the ICO, handwritten notes discovered in one firm’s offices suggested that Telrus had been making use of 70 mobile phone SIM cards a day, which would be placed into a card reader and connected to a computer, after which SMS messages would be sent out until each SIM card’s text limit was reached.
The ICO seized records, which suggested that the firm was making sales of in excess of £7000 a day, and the directors were scooping in tens of thousands of pounds. As such both directors were fines the £440,000 between them for breach of the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations 2003.
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