A company has been fined £190,000 by Britain’s data watchdog for 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 to promote call-blocking devices.
The ICO said complaints revealed EAL callers were “aggressive, misleading, and often failed to identify themselves”.
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 ICO.
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.
“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 said it has issued an enforcement notice ordering EAL to stop making illegal marketing calls and to meet caller identification rules.
Russell Roach, director of preference services at the Data & Marketing Association, said: “People register with the Telephone Preference Service because they want greater control over who can contact them.
“Cases like this demonstrate why those protections are so important.
“Anyone making live marketing calls must respect the choices people have made about their privacy.
“When organisations ignore those preferences and contact individuals who have explicitly opted out of receiving unsolicited sales calls, particularly those who are most vulnerable, they undermine consumer trust and risk causing significant nuisance and distress.”
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, 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.