Cold Calling ban from The Informatoin Commissioner leads to problems for IFAs purchasing leads

August 2017 saw the ICO issue two separate warnings to businesses about making nuisance calls. At the start of the month, two companies were fined a total of £150,000 after they broke the law by calling people who were registered with the Telephone Preference Service (TPS).

Both companies were also issued with enforcement notices compelling them to stop making nuisance calls or face court action. Neither had subscribed to the TPS register to check whether those they were contacting had opted out of receiving direct marketing, and they both contacted people again after being told not to.

More recently, a domestic energy saving firm was fined £50,000 after it continued to make unsolicited marketing calls during a period when its usual system for screening numbers against the TPS register was unavailable due to technical issues.

IFAs that purchase leads, must make enquiries on how those leads were gathered. The questions that you need to ask are these:

1. Are you registered with the Telephone Preference Service?
2. How do you check the TPS register?
3. Do you cold call for pensions work? If yes, then don’t use.
4. Do you cold call for investment business? If yes then don’t use.
5. How do you differentiate between cold call and warm lead?
6. What consent do you check? Check that these boxes are not “opt out” boxes, but rather “opt in” boxes.
7. Please show us the consent requirement you use.