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Fines threat for credit text messages
http://x404.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=15727		 Page 1 of 3
Author:  rustybucket [ Sat Jan 28, 2012 9:48 am ]
Post subject:  Fines threat for credit text messages
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-16759025

Quote:
Firms face raids and fines of up to £500,000 for sending unsolicited text messages about credit or compensation.

The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) said tackling the issue was a "high priority".

Typical messages claim recipients are entitled to money, promise to write off debts or find a loan, or suggest accident compensation can be claimed.

But in many cases, the products they are selling can actually make people financially worse off.


My favourite bit is this:

Quote:
Sarah Stocks, from Plymouth, said she started to be bombarded by texts after enquiring online about applying for a loan. She decided not to go ahead with the application, but by then, her contact details were already being used.

"I got [texts] all the time, sometimes four or five a day. You know, you're lying in bed reading, about to switch off the light, and you get a text at 10.30pm. But when you pick it up it says 'Do you want a loan for £5,000?'," she said.

"It is just absolute harassment. I think they have sold my details on to more companies."

Turn your phone off!
Author:  JJW009 [ Sat Jan 28, 2012 11:27 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Fines threat for credit text messages
rustybucket wrote:
Turn your phone off!

I'm sorry, what? Don't be bloody ridiculous. Why should you? Why should you turn your phone off? What if someone wants to ring you urgently? People have phones for a reason - it's so they can be contacted. They're pretty useless when they're turned off!

"Your mum's in hospital can you come right now she's dying" - but your phone's turned off because you don't want to get spam...

"The servers gone down and we're going all going to be unemployed by Monday can you fix it" but your phones turned off because you don't want spam...

"World War Three is about to start, can you phone the president" but your phones turned off because you wanted a kip...

Maybe you unplug all your phones and take the batteries out of the door bell, but normal people just can't do that. Normal people have responsibilities, unless they're 10 in which case they shouldn't have a bloody phone anyway.
Author:  rustybucket [ Sat Jan 28, 2012 2:54 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Fines threat for credit text messages
JJW009 wrote:
Don't be bloody ridiculous.

I'm not - you are.

You're not that important. Nobody on this forum is. Very few people in the world are.

JJW009 wrote:
"Your mum's in hospital can you come right now she's dying" - but your phone's turned off because you don't want to get spam...

Luckily the landline isn't disconnected.

It doesn't receive texts.

JJW009 wrote:
"The servers gone down and we're going all going to be unemployed by Monday can you fix it" but your phones turned off because you don't want spam...

If it's that important, I'm not the only person on the rota. If I'm the only person who can be rung to fix something that important, then we don't deserve to be in business.

Who's on duty? Is it me? If so then yes. If not, my phone's off and one of the 5 other techies can answer. Or ring the company it's been outsourced to.

JJW009 wrote:
"World War Three is about to start, can you phone the president" but your phones turned off because you wanted a kip...

You phone him - if you've got the number of the Secretary of Defence, you can phone the President yourself, or the NSA duty chief, or the CIA duty chief, whose numbers you will doubtless have.

If it's truly about a threat to US security, you should be contacting NMCC anyway. They will contact the National Command Authority if required.

If I'm not on duty, call someone else. There is someone else you can ring.

JJW009 wrote:
Maybe you unplug all your phones and take the batteries out of the door bell, but normal people just can't do that. Normal people have responsibilities, unless they're 10 in which case they shouldn't have a bloody phone anyway.

Normal people can do exactly that.

If work wants me to be on call, they can either ring the landline or provide me with a work mobile - whose number I do not give out. If that number starts getting spammed, it's up to work to sort it out.

Anybody that doesn't know the landline number isn't an emergency. They can wait until morning.
Author:  big_D [ Sat Jan 28, 2012 3:30 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Fines threat for credit text messages
Totally agree Jim.

I leave the mobile downstairs and on vibrate at night. We have one of the house phones upstairs in the bedroom, if it is important they can use that number.
Author:  Linux_User [ Sat Jan 28, 2012 3:34 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Fines threat for credit text messages
Turning your phone off won't stop the messages coming through once you've turned it back on.

Oh and BTW, your landline CAN receive texts, try it, it's even more annoying than receiving them on your mobile.

This is harassment plain and simple, and as such it's right that measures are taken to curtail this activity.
Author:  rustybucket [ Sat Jan 28, 2012 5:03 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Fines threat for credit text messages
Linux_User wrote:
Turning your phone off won't stop the messages coming through once you've turned it back on.

But those texts won't disturb me whilst I'm asleep.

Linux_User wrote:
Oh and BTW, your landline CAN receive texts, try it, it's even more annoying than receiving them on your mobile.

It can, but it doesn't have to

Linux_User wrote:
This is harassment plain and simple, and as such it's right that measures are taken to curtail this activity.

Yes it's right we try to stop the activity. However it's not the horror it's being made out to be: it's not as if the poor woman's phone is ringing off the hook.

She gets '4 or 5 texts a day'; that does not count as 'all the time'. I tend to think that most people could easily cope with one text every five to six hours.
Author:  cloaked_wolf [ Sat Jan 28, 2012 8:27 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Fines threat for credit text messages
I agree that it's not that big a deal (unless they're all at night!). Turning your phone off isn't always an option and not everyone has a landline. Certainly some of the consultants who I've worked with had no landline (eg temporarily renting) and they must be contactable by phone when on-call. The onus is on them to have a phone and the NHS will not provide one.

In all honesty, if this happened to me and was seriously bothered by it, I'd consider changing phone numbers.
Author:  l3v1ck [ Sun Jan 29, 2012 12:55 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Fines threat for credit text messages
rustybucket wrote:
JJW009 wrote:
Don't be bloody ridiculous.

I'm not - you are.

Actually you are Rusty. I'm with JJ on this one.
Author:  rustybucket [ Sun Jan 29, 2012 1:01 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Fines threat for credit text messages
l3v1ck wrote:
rustybucket wrote:
JJW009 wrote:
Don't be bloody ridiculous.

I'm not - you are.

Actually you are Rusty. I'm with JJ on this one.

In which case you're wrong as well
Author:  Linux_User [ Sun Jan 29, 2012 2:36 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Fines threat for credit text messages
l3v1ck wrote:
rustybucket wrote:
JJW009 wrote:
Don't be bloody ridiculous.

I'm not - you are.

Actually you are Rusty. I'm with JJ on this one.

+1
Author:  rustybucket [ Sun Jan 29, 2012 3:47 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Fines threat for credit text messages
Okay - any of the three of you:

What is it you do that so very important and yet text-based that it constitutes an emergency and yet can wait for a text to be delivered?
Author:  l3v1ck [ Sun Jan 29, 2012 5:04 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Fines threat for credit text messages
Who said it had to be text based, mobile phones are.. well phones.

Turning your phone off to stop spam messages turning up isn't a solution, it's a seven hour stop gap measure.
Author:  big_D [ Sun Jan 29, 2012 8:09 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Fines threat for credit text messages
I don't get any spam messages. I just turn it off, when i go to bed, so that I am not disturbed - the company also has a habit of making block bookings in my calendar and they have a habit of going off at midnight!
Author:  steve74 [ Sun Jan 29, 2012 9:40 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Fines threat for credit text messages
Even my crappy Samsung phone has the ability to have a different volume for text message alerts, I just save a new profile that leaves the call alert volume at normal level but puts the text message alert volume to silent - then switch to this profile at night. My phone is also my alarm clock so has to be left on, otherwise I'd be late for work!
Author:  Zippy [ Sun Jan 29, 2012 10:11 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Fines threat for credit text messages
Rusty, I'm glad for you that you have the ability to make the choice between having your phone on all the time and turning it off. Just because people don't feel the same way doesn't make them wrong, it just means they're living a different life to yours.

In this case, JJ is the only technician who does what he does for his quite small company, but he does it for some very big customers, so yes, if something goes wrong in London at 8pm on a Saturday he will get a notification to his mobile. In addition, he doesn't have a landline, so that's not an option, but even if he did, it would mean that (since he's on call all the time effecively) he could never leave the house!

I don't see how this is any different to the cold-callers who do call landlines soliciting business, I think if you don't want to be bothered by this stuff, then you shouldn't have to be. It shouldn't entail a lifestyle change on your part to avoid being hassled, particularly when you haven't given permission for your information to be used in this way. I only get 1 text msg from the 'claim' people about once a month or so and it still drives me nuts!
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