Telephone regulation - ofcom et al are useless

nobody@vox.com(liberal provocateur) — Mon, 17 Dec 2007 09:08:08 -0800

Oh telecoms regulators how I hate thee!

We're ex-directory and registered with TPS. You would think that would mean we avoid the worst abuse of the telephone system, but it doesn't - I regularly get scam and cold calls from dodgy companies who should know better.

The worst part is there is nothing you can do - if a UK business breaks the law or pays another company outside the uk to do the same, there is no way to trace them or take action.

OFCOM fails miserably in regulating cold calls via fax, email and telephone - today I got an automated war-dialling (as they can't have got my number legally) call from "The Information Team", who have a UK call centre, use a UK telephone number, and yet I am unable to do anything to prevent them doing it again - I can't even find out where their UK office is and go around and give them a hard time.

This is crazy - people use UK telephone numbers and .uk domains for illegal scams, and are untouchable - the telephone companies, ISPs, registrars, police and OFCOM all have no interest in taking any action. Utterly pitiful.

links for more information on these scamming scum :
* http://whocallsme.com/Phone-Number.aspx/08445592577/2
* http://groups.google.co.uk/group/uk.telecom/browse_thread/thread/244be21b7a25f91d

Those useless unhelpful muppets :
* http://www.ico.gov.uk/complaints/privacy_and_electronic_communications.aspx
* http://www.ofcom.org.uk/telecoms/ioi/nwbnd/prsindex/
* http://www.ofcom.org.uk/complain/landline/nuisance/silent/?itemid=284845
* http://www.tpsonline.org.uk/tps/

I've tried registering complaints with tps, etc - all of them say upfront they will not confirm anything and probably won't take any action - should you want to bring a civil case you require a private detective and some friends inside the telecoms industry - otherwise you're going to be a victim for as long as it's worthwhile for scammers to cold call and war dial.

It's crazy that I can't find out who these people calling me are and get them to stop, or report them to trading standards (which even when you've done some research is a waste of time).

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Liberal Provocateur

Telephone regulation - ofcom et al are useless