Seven ways to block and stop nuisance calls as ‘aggressive’ firm fined £190k for hounding OAPs

A COMPANY has been fined £190,000 by Britain’s data watchdog after bombarding elderly people with nuisance calls while claiming to be selling devices designed to block unwanted calls. The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) said Elderly Aids Limited (EAL) had deliberately targeted elderly people, making nearly 760,000 cold calls to those registered with the Telephone Preference Service (TPS) between May 2024 and February last year. The calls were made to promote call-blocking devices, of all things. The ICO said complaints revealed EAL callers were “aggressive, misleading, and often failed to identify themselves”. Sign up for the Money newsletter Thank you! One complainant reported their elderly father had been persuaded by EAL to sign up to a call-blocker service, paying £139 upfront and a monthly fee of £6.99, according to the ICO. The TPS allows people and businesses to opt out of unsolicited sales and marketing calls. It is illegal to make a live marketing call to anyone registered with the TPS, unless they have given permission to be contacted by a specific organisation. EAL repeatedly ignored requests from the ICO for information and continued to make nuisance calls during the investigation, according to the watchdog. It also tried to strike itself off the Companies House register amid the probe, the ICO said. Andy Curry, head of investigations at the ICO, said: “Not only did this company target vulnerable people who had explicitly asked not to be called – they harassed them to sell call-blocking devices.” Most read in Money He added: “EAL showed a complete disregard for the law and the people they were hounding. “This penalty should serve as a clear warning to any business that thinks the law does not apply to them – we will hold them to account for both exploiting people in this way and trying to avoid accountability.” As well as the financial penalty, the ICO has issued an enforcement notice ordering EAL to stop making illegal marketing calls and to meet caller identification rules. Last month, the ICO raided properties linked to five companies across the UK thought to be responsible for sending 170 million nuisance car finance mis-selling claims text messages. The ICO carried out search warrants across residential and business premises in Bolton in Greater Manchester, Burnley in Lancashire, Liverpool, London and Swansea in South Wales. It follows more than 12 million complaints about motor finance nuisance text messages since September last year, with up to 100,000 being received by the ICO every day. How YOU can protect yourself On an iPhone, you can enable Silence Unknown Callers by going to Settings, then Phone, scrolling down to Silence Unknown Callers, tapping the option, and turning on the feature. This will block phone numbers that are not in your contacts or that you have not contacted previously. It is disabled for 24 hours after an emergency call. On Android, open the Phone app, tap the three dots for more options, tap Settings then turn on Caller ID and spam protection. This uses a database of phone numbers to determine a caller’s ID and filter out spam calls. Apps such as Truecaller and Hiya allow users to block nuisance numbers from their smartphones. You can find these in the Apple App Store for iPhone or the Play Store for Android users. For landlines, contact the Telephone Preference Service to add your landline or mobile number to the UK’s official Do Not Call register and opt out of unsolicited communications. You can register your phone number on the TPS website or by phoning 0345 070 0707. It is free to register and takes up to 28 days to come into effect. Mobile phone users can add their number to the TPS register by texting “TPS” and their email address to 85095. They will receive a text from the TPS confirming their mobile number has been successfully added to its database. Uswitch’s Ernest Doku says certain phone providers offer their own blocking services, some free and some paid for. He advises contacting your provider to find out more. Mr Doku said: “For example, you can protect yourself from nuisance calls by using BT’s Call Protect service, which offers free call-screening.” He added: “EE has a Scam Guard service that flags spam calls. Their security costs from just £2 a month.” Shoppers should also be careful about sharing their details when signing up to services online. You may be asked for your phone number when you buy something or use a price comparison website. Looking carefully at the marketing “opt-in” or “opt-out” boxes in the small print can be the difference between giving your details to potential nuisance callers or not. Comment now